Owl! Assemble!
by pheonixfire00
Summary: The third part of my AU storyline "The lost Owl and the Phoenix". Ryu now knows where he is. Unfortunately, contacting the Science Ninja team is impossible since he is in an alternative universe or something along those lines. After an Interrogation, he's taken to the Avengers mansion until further notice. Set Post-Season 2 of Avengers and before episode 88 of Gatchaman.
1. Previously

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing._

**_AN:_**_ Just to let new readers know, this is the third chapter of my "The lost Owl and the Phoenix" fiction I decided to kick off last month. So if you don't mind spoilers, read on. Otherwise you'll find the previous two fic in the Gatchaman section (since I kinda wanted to surprise everyone with the crossover, which is a little spoiled by the second section of the fic)_

* * *

Ryu has woken up on the helicarrier, specifically, the infirmary. After extracting himself from the situation, he has tried to find a way off the ship and found out that SHIELD personnel were examining the God Phoenix. Since he didn't know that SHIELD is the (relatively) good guys, he assumed that it was either Galactor or an unknown military organisation attempting to plunder her secrets.

Initiating the self-destruct sequence, he double checked to make sure she wasn't salvageable before evacuating to the deck and saluting his long-time companion. After a brief attempt at escaping the soldiers, he encounters Iron Man and Hawkeye.

Already having a terrible run against large mecha's from Galactor, a human sized mecha was virtually unbeatable for the Owl on top of a large army of gun-toting soldiers. Giving up almost all hope, he decided to make his last stand. Called an Alien by a Doctor earlier, he gives his last speech and prepares for combat...

His speech worked… Well, kinda. It just so happened, that he was thinking about some alien films he saw with Jinpei a few years back and putting two and two together to make fifteen he may of mentioned something that managed to diffuse the situation.

Taken in for an interrogation, he managed to get some info out of them before spilling any beans. Of course, just as all the comments about being called kid gets to him and he final shouts out his real age, a certain Captain enters the room having observed the Owl from behind a one-way mirror. He knows when someone has military based training but when you're not a legal adult, the Avengers was slightly (very) shocked about that fact.

Which left him wondering how exactly to explain to these people, where he came from, how long the war against Galactor has been going on for, the Science Ninja Team's purpose, how much death they have experienced, how bloody the war is and the age range of the team. And with how shocked they are about a 17 year old in the special forces branch of the Military, that is going to be a rather, delicate subject.

And now to skip the entire second half of the interrogation because it works slightly better as memories and/or flashbacks.

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**_A/N:_**_ That was what happened previously in the fiction. Super short, but it's a summary. The next chapter is slightly longer so that's the apology._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	2. Reminiscing

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing._

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Ryu watches the clouds zip by from the small jet he was in, supressing a yawn that suddenly built up in his throat. His mind was a whirlwind of information that occurred recently on the helicarrier. He gives a sigh, resting his head against the window and ignores the chatter that the other occupants were speaking in favour of trying to rest.

It was enough that he had to get a brief explanation on where he was, but also on the team, the organisation and the current situation. In turn, he gave them some information on his world, the God Phoenix, the Science Ninja team, Galactor and the almost year long war against them. He didn't tell them everything, like how they were holding back their own pieces of information, but enough to get a general idea on what was going on. He could tell that despite the world encountering violence so often, the sheer brutality of Galactor's ways would be a bit too much for them all to know about so quickly. Besides, most of the team were already thinking about some of the things Galactor did, but he highly doubted they knew exactly how far they have been going beforehand. Even he had some issues he needed to sort out and out of the science ninja team, he was the most sorted of the team.

But the main thing he was thinking about was about this world. He wasn't on his world anymore, as evident by the worldwide events that neither really knew about on top of the sheer technological marvels he's witnessed. The main thing that caught his eye was that this world had a larger selection of people like the Science ninja team on hand, but more powerful and spread out. He sighs, glancing at the team making all sorts of small talk between one another. Several more members of the Avenger's team had joined the Human mecha and the purple archer since the head guy of the military, a Nick Fury had done an interrogation, a man and woman in yellow whom could change size, a guy in blue clothing and a shield and a red headed woman in a black.

The man in the mecha suit was a genius apparently. Tony Stark if he remembered correctly, which he may not of after being informed of so many different names and titles in such a brief amount of time. Still, he decided to examine the energy that his entry in the world caused and see if he could find a way to send him home. He seemed like the leader of the group, or at least a joint leader. He glances at him, who was currently making some rather clever comments to the others in the group from within his armour. The brief group meeting he had with him gave him the idea that he didn't seem to mind him much, a bit snarky at times, but friendly enough. Still calls him a kid though, much to his annoyance.

The archer, Hawkeye or otherwise known as Clint was, alright. He guessed. He was currently rubbing his eye, most likely bruised after he punched him earlier. The glare he sent at him made him grin and stick his tongue out. Immature, sure, but with all the comments about his age, he figured acting like it was explanation enough and it made him feel a little better. But he now knows that his weight made very little difference when it comes to a ninja's speed, having zipped past the entire group to sock him in the face when a comment got under his skin. He may have been restrained afterwards, but there were quite a few chuckles about it as the Archer cursed up a storm and it was so satisfying to hit him. And it was also the perfect opportunity to see how motherly Wasp was when he put on a puzzled look and repeated a swear word the guy was uttering. It turns out, she can get pretty motherly when she slapped him over the head for 'teaching' him a new swear word. The accompanied glare she gave him made the vengeance all the sweeter. Apparently fearing motherly wrath was universal amongst dimensions. Still, he did have some begrudging respect from him for making the hit, although it was concealed with his agitation.

The girl in yellow was someone he kinda liked already. She was friendly and bubbly, a little like Jun and Jinpei combined into one. She was called Wasp but her name was Janet. She did glance at him every now and then, curious most likely but she did give him a smile during those times, like she was being reassuring. She was already ranked the highest in his favourite people at the moment. Although she was a little too similar to the Swan in some regards though, like never anger her otherwise you'll regret it…

The man in yellow, Yellow Jacket or Hank, was strange. Sure, he was also smart, but he was also a little bit odd, swapping emotional states fairly quickly when he got agitated. A tech nut though. Which he was grateful for, since a brief distraction about the tech the ISO had made managed to detract from the conversation from its current path to a more cheerful one. He was currently swapping ideas with Tony about something, most likely from what he described during that interrogation.

The last member of the team he's met so far was Captain America, Steve. He was a conundrum. He was a soldier, he behaved with a lot of discipline, a lot like Ken, but he was also friendly. He seemed to stare at him every now and then, his expression understanding to an extent. He was the joint commander of the team, deferring to the team when their specialities were needed whilst also taking all their ideas in stride.

Fury, who wasn't an Avenger but had a lot of bulk with them, was also a mystery. He knew a lot and seemed to understand all sorts of hidden signals he was telling the group, even to the point where he didn't know what he was signalling the guy. Maybe the eye-patch converted talk into intelligence or something, or he could read minds? He did have this knowing look when Jan hit Clint for 'teaching' him a swear word but at least he stayed quiet about it.

They all had powerful skills and what was here wasn't all of them. There were more like them, spanning the entire continent, heroes that fought the bad guys and protected the world, like the Science Ninja Team did. He was even told that many had powers that could be beneficial to human kind. He already imagined some of them in his world. To be perfectly honest, any of them could take down Galactor easily enough. Iron Man could just hack into their systems and ruin them that way, Captain America could infiltrate just as easily as Ken could whilst taking out the enemy. Hell, even Hawkeye could take most of them down. And if what they said about the Hulk or Thor is true, well, living gods or beings capable of taking down entire armies would ruin Galactor. He still wasn't sure what to make of the fact that an actual god existed but oh well…

This brought him to his next thought, Galactor and the Avenger's reaction to the war against them. When he told them about the, heavily abridged version of the war against Galactor he caught both Fury and Cap exchanging concerned glances. They knew that something else was going on but they were considerate enough to not ask infront of everyone. The others were slightly concerned about his age, asking when exactly he joined the war since he was barely an adult at 17. He had hesitated slightly, debating internally whether or not to tell the whole truth or not, before deciding on part of the truth.

He told them that the war has been going on for just under a year since they didn't ask how long he has been preparing for it and when asked about the other members of the team he told them that Ken and Joe were older whilst Jun and Jinpei were younger. He evaded actually telling them of their ages, leaving it to them to guess or make assumptions.

He then went on, before they could ask anything else, about Doctor Nambu's role in the ISO, the technological advances they have made while pushing Galactor back and the unspecified amount of lives that they have saved or spared in stopping Galactor. He tried speaking in round-about ways, starting on one topic before moving to the next, leaving most of the group's head spinning from all the information that was both relevant and irrelevant and difficult to sort out (except for Fury, Cap and Stark, although thankfully they didn't comment on it).

Yellow Jacket and Iron man both interjected with their own questions about the sorts of technology they used. Although he didn't know too many things about them, he knew enough to let them know of the things that the ISO has developed, such as making nuclear energy safe to use with the minimal radiation waste, converting the waste people make into an energy source and the likes. Although a little annoyed that he didn't know how it was done, they were gathering their own ideas on how to implement them. When a question he wasn't comfortable with them knowing came about, he tried to interject another piece of tech into the answer, hoping to spark another series of questions to distract the group. In a way, he was successful. Yellow Jacket and Wasp were completely distracted from the real goings on and the others wisely kept their mouths shut.

After the interview, as the group was heading to the quinjet, he stayed behind briefly with something he wanted to ask Fury about with SHIELD. Once they were alone, he turned to Fury, eyes narrowed and simply stated that despite his age, he was protecting his home, family and friends. He may be young in their eyes, but against Galactor, even a child who could fight would be valued. Fury's only response to that was to ask him how bloody the war was. His eyes grew sad despite giving a reassuring smile, which apparently answered everything, but just to make sure, he uttered before leaving… "Too bloody. But if it's to prevent man-kinds extinction, then our sacrifice will make it worth it. To ensure no one else has to live through it." He's not sure what Fury's response to that was, but he could almost sense some kind of respect coming from him at that.

Still, the conversation was over and done with and after several hours, the group had decided that it would be an idea to take him into the mansion rather than on the helicarrier. He was quite glad about that, since he did think he would be quite bored if he stayed on the helicarrier, plus, he didn't exactly fit in there with his bird-style still on. With the team bickering back and forth, he glances out the window with a quiet yawn, watching the sky turn to water as the Quinjet did a water landing, the ship shaking slightly as his eyes grew heavier. He gave another yawn, muttering about the angle being too steep for a smooth water entry as he propped an elbow on an armrest.

With everything calmed down and several hours of mundane questioning later, he was running on empty. He wasn't sure if they had some Cola in this world so he refrained from asking since he had some water.

The team wanted to ask him some more questions once they landed and he was dreading answering them, but the adrenalin he experienced since he escaped the infirmary wore off as he approached the jet, making him completely relieved that he didn't have to fly it and could crumble into the nearest seat. A few seconds of watching the water and fish zoom past and his eyes were closing. By the time they approached a metal tube he was asleep, snoring lightly.

It was barely several minutes into that nap when he is nudged awake. Blinking, he looks up at Wasp who was grinning down at him. "You do know you have a room in the mansion. Right?" Even half asleep he could hear the teasing tone in her voice. Giving a yawn and a stretch, he stands up, lifts the helmet up a bit and rubs his eye from under the visor.

"We here?" He supresses a yawn, blinking tiredly when Wasp chuckles.

"Yup, we're here. I suppose you just want to go to bed?" He winces at how, peppy she was.

"Yes please." She grabs his hand and tugs him along, eliciting several chuckles from the other members on the ship whilst also invoking a yawn from someone else. He ignored them all, focussing on the path that Janet was taking to his bed, constantly fighting back the sleep as he waited patiently for the lift to take him up. As he walks down a hallway, he glances out the window and adopts a frown. As Janet opens the door, he mutters under his breath. "How long did that, interrogation take Ms Janet?"

She shrugs, looks at a clock and pokes the air several times as he walks in and towards the bed. "I told you to call me Jan. And, well, it was early afternoon when I arrived and its morning now. I think you were busy with them a few hours before the rest of us came, so over 19 hours give or take a few?" He doesn't reply, rather he groans and lets himself fall on top of the bed, his helmet haphazardly thrown to the side as he clocks out. Over 19 hours on top of recovering from crashing into the river on top of a 17 hour day to target Galactor's base… Sleep was defiantly worth it and being unconscious didn't count. She chuckles and closes the door, leaving him to his sleep.

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_**A/N:** End of this chapter. Skipped the second part of the interrogation in favour of doing this, simply because I couldn't figure out exactly what to do for the second half. The first half just flowed out but the second, I had a dozen iterations I wasn't happy with so I just cut it out completly. It's now just referenced. That should make it easier for me encase I want to change or add anything from that interrogation later on._

_The characters may be OOC somewhat to the actual show, but from what I've seen I believe I've portrayed them decently enough for someone who is known at home for refusing to use long sentences when shorter ones would convey what I meant._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while i shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	3. The Avenger's Mansion

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing._

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Ryu rolled over and yawned, stretching his aching muscles as he looks around. He frowns when he doesn't recognise where he was, before hopping off and picking up his helmet. Looking out the window, he spies cars driving by as well as people walking along the road (along with some people taking photographs of the building). He blinks before making an oh sound as everything rushes back to him. Now nervous, he heads to the door.

A sudden noise makes him jump back and yelp, before swinging his head in all directions to find out where the noise came from. "Good morning sir. It is approximately seven fifty two in the morning and the weather is rather pleasant outside. I take it you slept well?"

Putting on a confused expression upon finding nothing, he scratches his head with his free hand. "My apologies sir. I am JARVIS, the AI that runs the Avenger's Mansion. Do you require me to alert a member of the Avengers? Captain America and Wasp are currently up although Mr Stark is away on business at the moment with Hawkeye. It has been approximately 15 hours and 23 minutes since you arrived here and I am sure you are feeling hungry right now?"

He blinks, making another oh noise as he finally spots the metal speaker on the wall near the door. "It's, um, ok. I wasn't aware this place had an AI. I'm Ryu. And yes, could you send someone up please? I, don't think I remember half the routes I took to get here. Heh, heh."

"Ms Van Dyne is currently en route. What would you like for breakfast?"

Ryu tilts his head and gives a grin. "Pancakes please! And have I really been asleep for 15 hours?" He punctuates that question with a concerned stare.

"I have asked the chef to make some pancakes. They should be ready soon. Ms Wasp will be taking you down for breakfast before giving you a tour." The voice pauses for a moment. "And you have been asleep for over 15 hours."

Ryu gives a nod, although he wasn't sure if the AI saw it or not. Looking around for a few moments, he hears a knock on the door. "Ryu? It's me? Are you ready?"

Blinking, he blushes slightly as he opens the door. "Ah, yeah, just had a conversation with Mr JARVIS."

She gives a grin, before looking over him. As she rakes her gaze up and down, he shifts slightly, suddenly feeling nervous. "Y'know, for someone who has been wearing that for over a day and slept in it, your costume doesn't exactly smell or look too wrinkled? How does it do that? Do you need some clothes?" Blinking, he looks down at his bird-style. Doctor Nambu did make sure that their clothes and costumes were resistant to virtually everything. Never too sure what they'll come across that could be harmful.

"Ah, they were made to be resistant to a lot of things, mud, water, sweat. Never know when you'll be on call all day or week y'know. Heh heh." He rubs the back of his head in embarrassment. Once he finds a private moment, he'll transmute back to his civvies.

She gave him one final look over, before grinning and grabbing hold of his hand. She then tugs at him, pulling him down the corridor. "Well, c'mon then! I hear you ordered Pancakes so I put in an order as well. You'll love our chef's pancakes. They're always so fluffy and light! And when you drizzle them with maple syrup! Umm-mmm."

He gives a wide at that. "Oh boy! I can't wait! If they're anything like Jinpei's Pancakes, then I'm looking forward to it! Ummm… Do I need to pay or anything? I, don't actually have any cash on me right now..."

She shakes her head. "Nope! So don't you worry about it! And that way takes you to the roof by the way. We have a swimming pool up there and some deck-chairs so it's a great place to relax." She gestured to a hallway leading to some stairs as they passed it, having only caught a brief glimpse before being taken down the staircase.

He blinks when he sees Yellow-Jacket walking to a doorway, yawning with one hand and holding a stack of blue paper in the other. The man lights up upon seeing him but Wasp beat him into speaking. "Food first, tour second and then you can geek-out." He gives a sigh, but follows loyally. Apparently, this was a common occurrence. Still, at least she had her priorities straight.

He enters a room that he instantly designates the Kitchen. A large fridge was nearby and a chef was currently by the stove cooking some, pancakes most likely since both of them ordered some. Captain America was at the table, a mug of half-drunken coffee in one hand while the other held a newspaper.

He was offered a seat and he gives a nod in greetings to the Captain. He was likening the Captain with Doctor Nambu already, up before anyone, coffee in one hand and a paper in the other as he gets ready for the day. At least, that's what he's observed when spending the night at the Crescent base.

He blinks when a stack of pancakes was placed in front of him. Looking to his side and at Wasp, he spotted the Maple Syrup being squirted generously over her stack with a grin, before offering it to him.

His sweet tooth demanded he do the same.

After lathering his pancakes in the liquid sugar, he began eating them, eyes closed in bliss as he tasted the sweetness and the pancakes underneath it. "Mmm, this is great! Sugar has become a really rare thing back home. You're so lucky to have it available so readily…" He pauses mid-way through his stack, suddenly overcome with a bout of home-sickness and not the kind of heading to his fishing village. His expression must have been obvious, since Steve puts on a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure Tony and Hank are working on a way to get you home. So don't let yourself worry too much soldier. It's only a matter of time before they find out a way."

Hank gives an annoyed look. "Yeah, give us some time. We'll figure something out… Still need to pick your brain for those other bits of tech your world has that can help."

Ryu gives a strained smile to them glad they were trying to encourage and reassure him, but was still feeling rather upset at the realisation that he wasn't at home. "Just wish I knew that the others were alright. I'm pretty sure they were infiltrating a base when this stuff happened…" Giving a sigh, he brings another forkful of pancakes up to eat, before pausing again.

His mind suddenly coming to the realisation that without him and the God Phoenix, what will the team do? Flashes of memories came back as he remembers that it was all a trap and they fell for it. They were left alone on that mecha with no way home!

His breathing catches suddenly, his eyes unfocussed as his imagination grasps on the worst case scenario and it all comes crushing down afterwards. Has Galactor caught the team? Can they escape from them if they were?

He didn't notice that Steve and Janet was rushing to him as he found his breath quickening. Apparently they were watching him after his brief bout of sadness and caught the tell-tale signs of an inevitable panic-attack from his expressions. He could feel Hank reach under his cloak and rub his back to help him relax as he asked something. But the voices mumbled something through the haze of his mind was in but it difficulty to hear with his heartbeat thundering in his ear and what sounded like a song being whispered into his ear.

His mind was a whirlwind of fears and panic, wondering how the team will escape, what would happen to the world. Have Galactor succeeded in killing the Science Ninja Team!? Unlikely right? But if the team did get away, how will they fight without him and the Phoenix!?

His vision blurs as the panic settles in, his mind a chaotic mess as fears open up and swallows everything, even the dull crash of something breaking somewhere didn't do anything.

Then he felt someone slap him across the face. Blinking, he completely freezes, before his eyes focus on Janet's, Steve's and Hank's worried face, watching them say something but only hearing a thumping and whispering in his ears. It was not quite enough to break him out of his fears but it was a start and apparently they saw that since the whispering stopped. He finally regained control of his mental state and years of ingrained training had him begin the process of recovery.

Closing his eyes, he sits up from his position, not wondering why he was on the floor but glad he was. Bringing both hands together, he shifts his position until he was cross-legged, closes his eyes and attempts to focus his breathing with meditation. Bringing both hands over his stomach, he weaves his fingers together while pressing his thumb and index finger tips against the other hand's ones as he forces his breathing to stabilise. Once his breathing calmed down and was now semi-calm, he began doing some breathing exercises that he remembered from his medical training.

Half a minute of this later, he opens his eyes and gives a nervous grin up at their worried faces. "Sor." He pauses, his breath hitching as he forces his breath to stabilise again. "Sorry. Was worried about home…" He takes the glass of water that is offered to him and gratefully downs it. Afterwards, he gets up like nothing happened and looks around.

Blushing at the sight of some broken glasses and a plate strewn about, he turns to the group, bows and begins apologising, to which Steve casually waves it off as a casualty of a panic attack and that it's all ok, especially since Tony can afford a few new glasses and plates.

Still red from the, panic, he sits back down at the table and resumes eating his pancakes, earning a chuckle at how easy he was calming down. Or whether food helped calm him down, he wasn't quite sure. Still, can't let good pancakes go to waste.

Normalcy settled in, everyone resuming their breakfast and idly chatting away, although he did catch concerned glances his way, he waved them off and said he was fine. He managed to chat with Jan for a bit, then Steve and finally Hank, who spent time explaining things going on in the world world that he will be staying in, at least until they develop the tech to get him home.

Once they have all eaten, Ryu helped wash the dishes, a fact that amused most of the group although he doesn't realy know why. At the Snack J, he sometimes helped out in the kitchen if Jun and Jinpei were swamped and he lived on his own, so washing dishes wasn't too eye-raising. Once done, Janet grabbed his hand and dragged him on the tour, Steve deciding to join in just encase he needed rescuing.

* * *

After a brief tour of the rooms, he was taken upstairs to the roof. Eyes lighting up at the sight, he beams when he gets told that the pool was there and looks at it in excitement. Steve slaps his back once he saw his expression. "After the tour soldier." Awww... Then again, he didn't have any swimming trunks so maybe it was a good idea to wait till later?

"I think Hank called dibs on geeking out after the tour..." Ryu just gives a groan at that, getting a chuckle from the pair before he gets taken downstairs. This time, they entered a lift. As he gets taken down, they told him who else was coming today. Ms Marvel would be arriving soon and Thor maybe dropping in later on as well.

Now having something else to look forward to, he was shown the war room. A large console in the middle underground was completely unique. Not having seen much tech, he was shocked when a burst of light shot up and started showing images, blueprints and all sorts of things. After an explanation, they continued the tour.

Next was the training rooms. Rather than explaining most of the things here, Steve decided to kidnap him, asking for a quick spar to see what how he fights. Janet did face palm at this, but Ryu was all for it. Sparring against a real hero, to him, this was a bonus. A brief warm-up and instructions to not go for any lethal shots was issued, before they took their places.

Deciding to kick it off, Ryu charges forwards, palms out as he attempts to do an open slap, only for Steve to twist out of the way, grab his arm and throw him across the room. Blinking and wondering what happened, he looked up and saw Steve beckon.

Grinning, Ryu hops up and attempts it again, but was ready for when Steve grabbed his arm. Reaching down, he grabbed the captain's knee and kicked up with one leg. Of course, Steve saw through it and bent back, sliding his leg out and tripping up his single leg, twisting again and flinging him to the edge of the room.

Ryu didn't land this time, landing on his hands, he pushes up and high into the sky, the wings flaring out as he twists in mid-air and pushes off the roof again and towards the captain. As he approached, he released the flared wings, causing him to suddenly drop a foot away from the captain, landing on his feet and performing a quick, low leg sweep. This time he managed to catch him by this surprise sweep and once he finished the spin and was facing the falling captain, he pushed forwards into a dive in an attempt to grab him.

Steve countered this by grabbing onto his arms and used his momentum to roll and fling him over, hopping up quickly and resuming his stance. Huffing, Ryu also stands up and places his hands on his hips, thinking on what to try next.

Giving another nod, he tries one more charge, hopping up so he was falling at the captain. At the last second, his wings flared up and jarred him to a slow, but it was enough that Steve's hand, who was in the process of reaching out to grab his arm, only clapped his own hand. Flipping back while he was off-balance, he brings his boot up and kicks him forwards, flipping in the air and landing on the ground. Jumping forwards, he brings both arms down to grab his ankles as Steve kicked back with his hands on the floor, flipping over and attempting to land on his back.

The man countered this again, twisting to the side and causing him to let go or slam himself into the ground. Twisting in the air, he lands on his feet and hops back a few feet, watching as Steve gets up and does the same. They both stand there and watch, looking for holes in their defences.

Unfortunately, Ken, Joe and Jun were the better ones at that, so he couldn't see any kind of holes and from the way Steve was looking, he had quite a few of his own. Taking a few deep breaths, he decided to go all out. Leaning down, he rushes forwards, electing a widened eye from Steve as he rushes to block his attacks. The Owl unleashes a series of fast blows, attempting to get a hit in so he could grapple his opponent, whilst Steve was trying to adapt at the increased speed on top of the raw strength he was fighting at. Still, Ryu had holes in his defences and a quick kick had him stumble back.

When Steve tried a follow-up attack, he bent backwards and kicked up, managing to get a lucky shot and knock the Captain into the air. Capitalising on this advantage, he jumps up as well, beginning an aerial assault using his superior aerial manoeuvres for the few seconds they were up there. But Captain America was adaptive. Managing to block each attack, he used him as a board and pushed him up higher into the air whilst simultaneously landing on the ground. Rolling to his feet, Steve gives a grin as Ryu glides down, landing ten feet away with his wings pooled around him.

Ryu decides to try a charge again, rushing forwards with his ninja speed, to which Steve hopped forwards to try something, when a glowing woman suddenly shoots down between the two and grabs both of their arms, effectively stopping them both. Having seen Jun's Swan outfit since she was given it, the outfit this woman was wearing only caused a raised eyebrow.

Although he does remember the first time the group saw Jun's outfit the first time. Young teens and raging hormones had both him and Ken red faced and various cat calls from Jo. He supposes that it is a way to distract goons like the way Jun does it when she is going around kicking ass.

Seeing Captain America stand down, he follows suit, taking a step back and bowing in respect. As he rises, he blinks when he sees Steve mimicking the action, causing him to smile softly at the attempt at some semblance of normalcy.

The woman stops glowing and places one hand on her hip, grinning at the pair. "Well boys that looked fun and was a nice demonstration. Didn't think to invite Jan or me to join though?" Mumbling an apology, Steve simply laughs, strolls over and slaps him on the back.

"He's good. I'll give him that. A few holes in his defences but the major ones are all plugged up. Good use of speed and aerial skills and that cape of yours is an interesting aspect in combat. Why didn't you use any weapons though?" An enquiring look was met with a broad grin.

"I do have a cable gun I could have used and some feather shurikens but I tend to focus on unarmed combat than with weapons. Gotta use my size to my advantage y'know." He pats his stomach, grinning.

The girl grins. "Honourable, I get that. So newbie. I'm Ms Marvel but you can call me Carol. You're, Ryu I take it?" She holds her hand out, a smile on her face.

He nods his head, glancing to the buzzing next to him to see Wasp flying near his ear as he reached for her hand. "That's right. I'm Ryu Nakanishi, code G5, the Horned Owl. Nice to meet you."

Janet lands on his shoulder and points at the door. "Anyway, we need to continue the tour. Next stop! The Quinjet!" The brief moment when she started to turn made him remember exactly what the quinjet was. He was too sleepy yesterday to enquire, but now that he was awake and alert...

She started to fly forward, only to blink when Ryu was already standing by the door, bouncing on his feet looking everything like the excited teen he should have been. "C'mon! C'mon! Let's go! Let's go!" Looking highly excited, the group only laughs before rushing to the door and hurrying to the ships, having to call for him to slow down or to take this turn when he got a little too far ahead or took the wrong turning.

Upon seeing the ship, he looks up at it with both a critical eye and and soft stare. He was already visualising the air currents that will interact with the ship as well as what could turn and what was solid. Janet started to explain the basics, about the speed it could hit, the armaments as well as other basics. He spent the time fluttering around it, examining every nook and cranny, his mind catching the important details on a sub-concious level as he compared it instinctively to some types of ships back home.

When she asks if he has any questions, he begins asking for some of the more technical aspects of the ship, something that caught Carol's interest.

"It does have a series of stabilisers to enable sharp turning. Interested in planes?"

Ryu nods his head eagerly, already peering into a panel and tapping the edge. "Yeah! I'm the pilot of the God Phoenix, the team's ship. I even got to check over all the changes they did to her to make sure they were up to par. Can't have too many things weighing her down. Especially since we had to have everything works manually without any network connections for flight. Never know when Galactor will hack into the system and do something stupid."

He presses the side of his head to the ship and taps the side a few times. "Sounds like the hull is about a few inches thick, although the material sounds like, titanium alloy? I do remember going underwater so it must have some kind of pressurised hull to enable underwater usage right?" Janet and Steve shake their heads when Carol joins in that conversation, excitedly explaining the specs of the ship from what she remembered.

Janet and Steve both look at each other and utters, almost simultaneously. "Ship Geek-out?" Shaking their head they turn to the exit and call over their shoulders. "Once you're done, feel free to bring him back upstairs!" The proceeded through the door, shutting out the technological questions Ryu was asking Carol...

Seeing Hank on the other side, they both grinned and cut him off from his next sentence. "He's geeking out over the Quinjet with Carol. Don't think you're going to pluck anything from his brain any time soon." They laugh when he sighs and resigning trudges away to his lab, the two sharing a smile before heading back upstairs. A little guilty, she does call out to him something Ryu told her earlier. "His clothing may be interesting y'know? Material-wise. Something about wear and tear resistant!" He turns back to them and begins asking questions. She did drag him away though.

* * *

Several hours after leaving the two, Carol and Ryu re-enter the lounge of the mansion. The end of their conversation was caught by Tony who was casually chatting with Hank over something while Steve was drinking a glass of water. Janet had a hand on her hip with an expression that echoed out about why it took them so long.

Hank and Tony turn and frowns/grins upon spotting the pair. Upon spotting Tony, Carol instantly points at him and exclaims to him in a demanding tone. "You, we need some extra flight stabilisers on the Quinjet. The turnings have a point seven eighths of a second lag time. It isn't too noticeable right now but after having it pointed out, it's now ruining the entire experience for me."

Ryu chuckles and rubs the back of his helmet, murmuring his own comments. "The system also needs to update what is a safe water entry since entry at the pre-designed angle at high speeds would strip the paint after enough entries. Entry at around a point 6 inches lower is more optimal..."

Tony stares at the pair, before locking his eyes onto Ms Marvel and calmly states his next question. "How exactly does he know this? Did you let him fly a Quinjet?"

She blushes and looks away for a moment. "... Nooo..."

He gives a grin, having caught her. "Are you sure? Because I have had an interesting report from JARVIS that a Quinjet has been seen flying over Manhattan and the statue of liberty an hour and ten minutes ago and recently docked in the underground chamber about 8 minutes ago..."

Ryu looks down and fiddles with his bracelet, before glancing up and coming up with an excuse. "I, wasn't flying it?" It may have worked if he didn't phrase it like a question and they both didn't look highly guilty.

Maybe distractions were in order to not get into trouble. They don't know about the bracelets yet do they? And it may distract Tony and Hank some more. "May as well..." Upon their perplexed looks, he brings his arm up in a circular motion and holds his bracelet in front of his face. "Bird, Out!"

A blinding light came out, causing the group to avert their eyes. Once they blinked out the spots, they turned back to the owl to give him a piece of their mind, only to stare at him in his civvies. Hank, the voice of tech and the wonders of it, was the one to break the silence "Interesting... Now I really want his clothes! How does THAT work exactly!?"

Ryu grins and chuckles, although a little creeped out about him wanting his clothes. "I'm pretty sure it's linked to my DNA, certain Wavelengths and a command word. But other than that it's all a mystery to me. Doctor Nambu wasn't quite as forthcoming about that to the team." He beams at the group, but frowns when he spots Janet's and Tony's almost horrified look. Turning, he sees Carol also giving that expression.

"... What's wrong?" Oh god... What if he was naked!? He quickly checked himself over, sighing in relief when he saw his clothing. It wasn't like he was naked and Jun hadn't changed the wavelengths to change him into her bird-style as vengeance. It happened to Joe and boy was that hilarious. No, nothing was wrong. He was in his civvies. So why were they so shocked?

It was Tony that enlightened him. "I thought the previous outfit was bad, but that! That looks like something you got from the eighties!"

Ryu blinks, before tilting his head in confusion. "And, that's a, bad thing?" His mind starts connecting dots. Advanced tech, commenting about the eighties in the past tense. He frowns, before glancing around, his heart partially sinking. "... I get the horrible feeling that it's not 1972... Is it?"

That made an oh noise from the group. Not only was he not in his home dimension, but he was in a different time period as well... Great...

Tony looked a little uncomfortable while Steve's eyes lit up. That's right. He did remember that Captain America was a man out of his time, which kinda meant he was out of time too if it wasn't he eighties. "THAT explains it... Well we're in the twentieth century so large, numbered shirts and those bell-bottoms are a little out of fashion right now you know..."

He was pretty much disrupted by Janet flying at him, enlarging and grabbing hold of his arm. "Well, what you need is to catch up with the times... And the only way to do that!"

Carol matches her grin and hooks his other arm. Why did he suddenly fear for his life? It suddenly clicked what was going to happen. His expression turns fearful as the others give him pitying looks after coming to the same realisation. Tony even takes out a credit card, sighing and anticipating the next sentence already. "Is SHOPPING! C'mon! Let's get you something presentable!" He gets dragged out by Carol as Janet nabs the Card form Tony and rushes after them, ignoring any protests about not needing or wanting anything else to wear.

They drag him to a few doors. Pushing him onto a seat. "Give us a moment to get changed." He waits for them to get changed, contemplating running off or hiding but they open the door soon enough, now in casual clothing. They then drag him out of the mansion and to the nearest shopping mall. A few eyebrows was raised when they walk past, but seeing two young women dragging the man by the arms who had an expression of fear on his face, the story was pretty much obvious. He could almost hear Ken, Joe and Jinpei praying for him.

What was most annoying was that they didn't care that the clothes he had on was part of his uniform and needed to be worn to change to bird-style. That was the first time he told them about that...

* * *

_**A/N:** And that's end of this chapter._

_Jumping ahead and answering questions before they're asked._

_For those who are slightly bothered at how proficient Ryu is in combat compared to the likes of Captain America... __Well, I have several reasons for it._

_**1:** He's a Ninja! Sure, he is more of a grappler/thrower than a martial artist but with sparring against Ken, Joe, Jun AND Jinpei, all of which are competent in their own right and rely on speed and skill, I would assume he has a few tricks for dealing with these kinds of opponents, especially with a lot more skill than him. He won't be doing their kind of acrobatics or the things they do, but high-speed movements and attacks are a given as a Ninja._

_**2:** He's a Ninja! He's got ninja speed and jumping prowess to go with his weight and inherent strength. Add on the fact that (pre Gatchaman 2) he is the physically strongest member of the team and you have a powerhouse just waiting to be released. I've just made him less comic-relief and more bad-ass in this fic._

_**3:** He's less, clumsy? I think that's the correct statement. He's grown up from the comic-relief upon discovering he isn't home any more. When you find your entire life has been ripped away from you and you can't get back on top of the dear about how your friends/family are facing back home, you tend to mature quickly (I'd like to think). That, and his innate team-working skills with the others won't save him because the others aren't around._

_**4:** Steve is holding back! Duh. Despite being an awesome ninja, Steve would probably still beat him. Plus, it's a friendly spar. He knows when to hold back or use more effort to the best advantage... right? Besides, __I doubt Thor would deal with a brief, friendly spar wielding Mjonlir in full thunder blasting *I am god* mode against the likes of Hawkeye or un-suited Tony, right? He'll tone it down and just go for light (to him) jabs and punches ... Right?_

_**5:** It's an AU. Everyone on the team needed to be more proficient, simply because they are entering a war-zone, thus he needed to be competent enough in unarmed combat to survive on their own! If he couldn't take on their instructor for a decent amount of time and/or win, then I doubt Nambu would send them out._

_**6:** He's being *spoilers!* That's right. There is another reason for such competency that actually has plot relevance for later on! Surprise! A Mystery! Isn't that fun_

_So there you have it. Several reasons for making Ryu a lot more competent in a fight than in the Anime. I feel special now :p_

_The time period I had him come from. Gatchaman came out in 1972, so the fashion in the series reflects that time period. Hence, matching them up. Avengers is more recent(ish) than that (at least, this reincarnation is). So surprise!_

_And yes, I did use the phrase "Geek-out" several times in this. I figured, since I do the same thing in response to certain things, it was an appropriate statement And by flight stabilisers, I was pulling out random crap out that sounded slightly technical. It sounds kinda right anyway so why not._

_You can probably guess what the next chapter is going to be about too. But just a clue, it involves a shopping mall. And we all know what happens when super-heroes go shopping for groceries and/or clothes right?_

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while i shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	4. The Horned Owl Rises

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing._

_Also, people are now finding this fic. awesome. Although they aren't actually reading past chapter 1, which kinda is a summary of the previous fics. Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS (or happy holidays if it doesn't apply to you)! _

* * *

After a few taxi's and some walking around, they finally arrived at the place he was dreading. Ryu gives a sigh at his current situation, being made to stand still in this shop while both girls were pulling off clothes from the racks, held them up in his direction, asking questions about clothing sizes and what things he liked. He was utterly terrified of this place and for good reason.

They were worse than Jun ever was. At least she didn't drag the team into shops and hold up clothes, asking for his opinion. He blinks when they hold up some denim jeans and a green shirt, making comments as they placed it onto the 'maybe' pile in his arms. It already had about 4 shirts, 3 jeans and 4 pairs of shorts. He could almost imagine himself crying at the idea of trying everything on. Before sighing in resignation.

"Boxers or briefs?" This was Janet holding up a box of men's underwear in both hands, a smirk on her face. He could swear girls were born to be evil if they liked this sort of thing.

Red faced, he hears some chuckles from the other shoppers, as he manages to squeak out. "Does it matter?" Really? Does it matter? They all provide support, so it's not like they were too important. Although changing them constantly was a hassle.

"Of course it does! It's all about the support and your preferences! Some guys opt for boxers since they are looser and allow..." She was stating things so matter-of-factly that it seemed only a tad less embarrassing... Just a tad though...

Still, he interrupts her, not wanting to hear the rest of what she was about to say. "Both, either, I don't care. It's all the same to me..." Letting them decide would be less embarrassing than picking one he figures. From her expression, she may not like that.

"Well, what are you wearing now?" Now he was completely red. Of all the questions she had to ask, she chose that one!? The last time he was this embarrassed was when Jinpei thought it'll be amusing to hide his towel while he was having a shower and he had to sneak to his room without anyone spotting him. Of course, with the eagle eyed Eagle and Condor passing by nearby, that was impossible and luck would have it that Jun was walking with them as well. That was so embarrassing he didn't feel guilty about swapping out the kid's sugar bowel with a salt one as vengeance. Heh, kid still thinks it was Joe who did that to this day, but that will teach him to mess with them... Not like he listened or learnt but he was a kid he supposes.

"... I'd rather not say..." She looks at the two boxes, before commenting about needing a size bigger and heads back to the rack... Moments later, Carol pops her head out from behind a rack and holds up a blue, button-up shirt in front of her and over his body, grunts something that may or may not have been an affirmative and heads back behind the rack. Looking behind him, he saw a group of people chuckling at his situation. Girls were scary... Especially during that embarrassing underwear debacle Carol somehow managed to double the pile in his arms with more clothing. How he had no idea. She was probably doing the glowing thing and zipping around for more clothes...

Just as he was about to ask if he could sit down, they threw one more shirt onto the pile and started pushing him towards the changing rooms. Putting the clothes in one pile (which worryingly was quite tall), they hand him a shirt and jeans and tells him to try them on. Sighing, he begins the process of modelling clothing, making sure to fold his clothes and leave them nearby. They were important and he didn't want to lose anything here.

* * *

After a dozen or so combinations, the routine of trying everything on in different combinations is disrupted by the sounds of glass shattering and screams, thanking his luck for the distraction. Peeking his head out since he was in just his underwear and a shirt, he asks what's wrong, only to see the shirt Carol was wearing thrown from behind the corner as they most likely were heading out. Cursing, he enters back in and hurries to get back into his clothes.

Hopping out of the cubicle while tying one shoe, he makes it around the corner and spots the two fighting a group of guys with weaponry on them... Grey clubs on chains, crowbars and two brawlers, it seemed Janet and Carol was capable of handling them. Still... Glancing around, he spots a single camera and steps behind it. Slipping into a stall, he brings his arm up and calls the command word... "Bird! Go!"

Dazzling light erupts and surrounds him, transforming his clothes into his bird-style. It only takes a moment for the change to complete, before he rushes out and perches himself onto a railing and watches the fight. It looks like they are handling this very well. The four have some technique but not enough to bypass the Wasps and Ms Marvel's capabilities, especially since the metal ball being slammed into Carols face didn't do much. He was tempted to change back and continue on when the guy with the ball chain swung back and hit a pillar, causing it to precariously wobble a bit. He frowns when he spots a woman and child stumble back from the pillar, looking up with fear and panic. _Looks like it's time for the Horned Owl to join the party!  
_

He acts. Leaping up and over the group, he flings out a handful of feather shuriken at the guy with the ball and chain as he lands near the two. As the pillar crumbles, he hops forwards, covering several feet in an instant as he scoops the two up under his arms. Hopping backwards, he watches as the pillar crumbles, dropping chunks of masonry where the two were.

Hopping back again, he then jumps up a few dozen feet, backflips in the air and snaps his wings out to glide to the second floor and away from the fight. As he sets them both down, he gives a grin at the awed look on the kid's face, before turning and perching himself on the railings, ignoring the two question him when security pulls them back, shooting him a questioning glance but not questioning another heroes appearance.

The battle was on pause, the guy with the ball chain thing was nursing his throwing arm that had some feathers sticking out of it, having managed to strike a pressure point and seizing his arm up. They were all looking up at him, Janet was grinning, Carol was smirking and the four bad guys were looking up in anger. "Who the hell are you fatass!"

Tilting his head, he stands up to his full height and hops down, letting his wings snap out again and turn it into a smooth glide. As he lands, he brings his wings around him, letting the cloak pool around him as he gauges the four, putting on the most cool and intimidating Joe impression he could. "The Horned Owl, G5."

He blinks when Janet and Carol fly by, land behind him (Jan returns to human size) and pat him on the shoulder. "Perfect timing! Let's see how well you handle our bad guys! Good luck!" They both push him, causing him to stumble forwards as he twists his head around and shoot them both a glare, feeling like the moment of coolness was ruined by that. He never get's those moments and they ruined it.

"Hey! Aren't we working as a team here?", his voice was partially whiny but dammit He was in the zone! They both grin and step back, pointing behind him. As he turns around, his eyes widen and he ducks as a crowbar whistles where his head just was. Gaping at the nerve, he slams his palm into the guy's stomach causing him to double over, before jumping and then rolling over his back, grabbing the guy's shoulders and used his momentum to launch the guy at metal head, who was charging at him.

The loud thunk of flesh hitting metal and two groans of pain made him grin as he back flips over a guy who he just noticed had huge hands. Taking a moment to assess the situation, he gives a grin as he spots the audience out of the corner of his eye. "Y'know, it's been such a long time since I actually got to get out and fight, I may be a little rusty. Although compared to you four clowns, this may not even be a warm-up. So who are you guys?"

"You damn fatass!" The reply was from the guy with the chain and ball, again, who charged at him after being unable to get his arm working again. Surprising the guy was amusing, although repeating the word 'fatass' over and over again was rather stale. He quickly settled into a sumo stance, stomping one foot down before meeting his charge halfway, grabbing the guy's arm and his waist. He jumped, using the man to pivot his arc which spun him around, before using his full weight to push the man bodily into another companion. Turning, he gives a glance at the crowbar guy and the metal head, both charging at him after having figured out that he was a newbie since the two, experienced members of the team was letting an unknown try their hand.

Obliging their attempt, he quickly draws his cable gun, diving to one side as he fires the other way. The two run into the cable, bending it with their speed and force. Using said force and speed, he jumps towards them, sliding on the ground and up before jumping at the two. Trying to untangle themselves, they both say hello to the boot on their shoulders, a heel to one face before twirling the cable gun above him and causing it to wrap the pair a bit more. As the guy with big hands attempts to punch him, he back flips off of the two, grabbing the guy's arm and swinging under it and wrapping the arm up in the cable too.

Sweeping large arm's legs out from under his feet, he rolls under the body as it falls, hops up and yank towards the two that were trussed up. This forced the guy to be pulled up and collide with the two which he proceeded to hop up, and then launches the other end of the cable gun into the other wall, effectively binding the three together. Turning around to give a grin, he almost doesn't notice the metal ball smack into his side. Unfortunately his body does and he is thrown back a few feet, rolls and ends up on one knee while clutching his side and groaning in pain.

Looking up, he glares at the cocky guy who reaches out with one arm to try and break the cable gun. His expression changes swiftly to panic as Ryu unleashes a barrage of feathers at him, causing him to stumble back, fall onto the floor and hold the metal ball in the way to prevent anything else from being unusable again as well as keeping the sharp, pointy things out of his body.

As he peeks out from behind the ball, he blinks as he looks around for the Owl who wasn't in sight. He blinks again when the area becomes shadowed and making the rookie mistake of looking up, he only has time to briefly eep as the full weight of the Horned Owl lands on his back, forcing him down and cracking his chin on his own metal ball.

Wincing, he rubs his side as he surveys the area. 3 guys wrapped up and 1 unconscious on the floor and being used as a seat. That's four for four. He glances to the side when he hears clapping, seeing both Janet and Carol clapping their hands with smirks on their faces. "Well, you beat them. Congrats! A few hiccups here and there but overall, good job!"

He huffs, wincing again as he expects a bruised to be developing under his suit. "Yeah, well, could have told me you wanted to see what I could do, rather than just pushing me forwards. I almost had my head knocked off!"

Carol shrugs. "Well, you did say you were a ninja, so I expected you to avoid it anyway. Anyway, what shirt were you up to?" He blinks, groans and then blushes, before deciding to leave. Jumping up, he quickly conceals himself in the shadows, returning to the shop he was at, avoids the cameras and re-enters his stall.

Giving a sigh, he transmutes out and begins undressing again, reaching for the next shirt he was meant to try on when he hears a giggle to his side. Looking at the door, he tilts his head in confusion before spotting Janet in her wasp form hovering over the door. "So you're THAT kinda guy huh? Should have said so earlier. It would have made things a lot easier. Just wanted to check you were still, HEY!"

Beet red, he throws his shirt at her, managing to catch and have it wrap around her causing her to fall on the ground, giving him enough time to pick up the jeans and slip them on. Opening the door, he glares at Carol, before picking up the shirt and jerks it around a few times until Janet fell out from it. Once done, he steps back in and slams the door shut. As he pulls the shirt on, he could hear Janet whispering something to Carol, before both of them start giggling.

Looking at the mirror, he can't tell how much more red he could get. This was just plan embarrassing. Although their clothes didn't need washing much since they were nigh-indestructible and unmarrable, their more delicate's weren't. That meant socks and underwear was all vulnerable. The team still wasn't sure if that was intentional or not, but after all the practical jokes Joe, Jinpei and himself have played on the group, the mood swings Jun made everyone suffer through and Ken being Ken, it was probably deliberate and Nambu's way of getting vengeance on the group for the years of suffering working with 4 teenagers and 1 head-strong child inflicted.

Lifting the side of the shirt up, he gently rubs the bruise that was forming there. "Yup, should of been more careful" Sighing and doing the buttons up, he checks that his face is less red, before stepping out and staring at the pair for their usual critique. The red tinge to their cheeks was answer enough about what they were talking about but they give a nod. _Great_... "So, how many more left?"

They pick up a shirt from the big pile next to them and hand it to him. He whimpers at that, head down and re-enters the changing room to change. He hears Janet heading out to get something else from the shop, making him whimper some more in despair... Still... It should end soon...

Right?

"Hey, Ryu. This place doesn't stock those, so I had JARVIS place an order to Japan!"

Right!?

* * *

"Six hours!" He still couldn't believe it... "You had me do this for six, freaking hours!" He takes a fairly savage bite from his hot dog. After being subjected to that torture for 6 whole hours, he insisted on having a large batch as a reward for putting up with all of that, clothe shopping they dragged him too.

Carol waves her hand dismissively. "You still had a few more to try on. Not our fault the shop has to close for the night."

Swallowing, he realised he was still rather indigent about the whole affair. "Still, Six hours! I did mention that my own clothes are keyed into the transformation right? And virtually untearable? And is virtually impossible to stain? Right?" He takes another savage bite out of his hot dog, the only good thing to come out of the day. He was starving and they did pay... Or rather, Tony paid from that card but still...

Janet gives a shrug. "Yeah, Tony and Hank still want to look at that, so you're going to have to get something new to wear anyway. Besides, don't you look awesome now?"

Looking at himself, he couldn't really tell. How the hell do Jeans and a button up t-shirt make him look more amazing. About to say something, he stops halfway and just sighs and takes another bite.

Janet gives a grin as she sips her milkshake. "Besides, I think you did pretty well for a first day, Mr Horned Owl." She sticks her tongue out at him, chuckling somewhat.

Carol snickers as well, before taking a box out form the bag. His face goes completely red upon seeing it. "Still can't believe you got several of these in the end."

She shakes the box at him, causing him to slouch in his seat as if he was trying to hide from the world whilst Janet casually comments back with a sly grin. "Hey, it was the closest thing they had to what he was wearing at the time! I had to make do with what I could. Still, these are a lot more modern y'know."

How long until he died from a lack of blood flowing into his heart? Because he is sure his cheeks have their own mini-heart now after this, event. Interrupting that sentence probably stopped any cheek-attacks from happening. "... You so owe me another go on the Quinjet for this... And another shake." He shakes his empty cup. "Never been so embarrassed in my life..."

Carol chuckles and puts the box back into the bag while Janet gives a warm smile at him. "That's what friends are for though. Right? At least you have enough clothing to last a good while now."

He blinks and looks down. Remembering his team-mates, his home and his world. "... Yeah..." He gives them both a smile, feeling a lot more relaxed at all this, although he was still a little red from embarrassment. Taking another bite from a hot dog, he watches the late night joggers head into Central park, as Janet got up to get another shake for him.

Sure, he was stuck on this new world. Sure, he had about, 15 bags around him full of clothes and sure, he couldn't get back home any time soon. But he had friends here helping him to get home and adjust to this new world.

He was a member of the Science Ninja team and if anything, they were adaptable. They didn't really need him that much except as a glorified auto-pilot. He was always a little left out of things, whether it's because he had a family back home or that the God Phoenix was completely manual, he rarely ever got to join a fight. And what are the chances his medical knowledge would be useful?

Maybe he could ask Tony to rebuild the God Phoenix! He had her blueprints memorised and the additions that could be tackled on would make her a force to be reckoned with when he got back!

He gives a broad grin. "Yup, everything is going to be alright... Ominous thunderstorm exempt." The girls look up and frown. They glance at each other as the cloud in the distance lets out several booms of thunder. Did thunder usually arc like that? _What kind of messed up world is this?_

"You know that god we told you about, Thor? You may be meeting him soon..." Another thunderclap rang in the sky as civillians looked up to it, before giving knowing looks and hurrying indoors. _Oh... That explains it_

Ryu glances at Carol and Janet, before returning his gaze back to the incoming storm. So Thor was going to be arriving soon. That could be strange although why would he gather thunderclouds to announce his entrance... Unless he was like Ken and used it like an intimidation factor? That tune he whistles has Galactor goons panic most of the time, especially when they were all hiding.

Janet and Carol then both grabbed some bags and hailed a taxi. Figuring it was time to go, he picks up the other bags and makes his way towards them, stumbling a bit with bags both hanging and filling his arms. Thankfully, the taxi driver was helpful (or it was a common occurrence) in that he opened the boot and started to help load the bags into it. Once done, he settles himself into the taxi as they drive off. Why couldn't they have some kind of teleporter or flying car people always say the future has.

He does ponder though... What exactly was the etiquette to greeting gods again? Was that even covered by Sensei? _He's probably super serious and no-nonsence... Like Ken most likely... Better stay on my best behaviour!_

* * *

It took a good while for the taxi to arrive, a few more minutes to get all the bags out and a few seconds to pay and tip the driver. Arms full again, they head inside, hearing Carol ask JARVIS where everyone was. His reply was worrying. "Everyone is currently out with to fight against several villains Thor engaged them when he spotted them trying to break into a shop from the roof, which has resulted in the others joining up to speed the capture along."

They nod and dump the bags in the corner. "Bring them to your room and put them away nicely! We're going to go see what's up." Pulling off their clothes to reveal their superhero outfits underneath, the proceeded to fly away to help, causing him to sigh.

Putting down a portion of the bags, he took more manageable amounts upstairs, occasionally asking JARVIS if he was heading the right way. It took four trips to bring everything up and put everything away, ending the task with his number five shirt on his bed. JARVIS then piques up again. "Everyone has returned sir. Ms Marvel and Ms Wasp are both on their way up."

Ryu nods his head. "Thanks..." He gives a sigh and picks up his old clothes. Maybe he should wear these underneath? Didn't they try that out before?

He blinks as he remembers. Oh yeah, the transformation caused the other clothing to disintegrate, making it useless to wear anything over them... Great. A few moments later, he hears a knock on the door. Opening it, he is greeted by the two girls, who instantly slip in and proceeds to check his cupboard and drawers, making sure everything was put away properly. A little annoyed at this, he places his hands on his hip and comments dryly. "Y'know, I have been living on my own for the past couple of years and maintained my own room and boating business for the previous year. I'm not going to leave a room messy you know..."

Both girls blush and chuckle, before settling themselves down on the bed, their gaze turning to his old clothes that was still on the bed. "So, Tony is going to want to look at those. And that bracelet of yours. Think you can spare them?"

Suddenly looking self-concious, he looks down at his transformation bracelet and then at his old clothes, conflicted for a moment. He had half a mind to refuse, before wondering if the wavelengths the Bracelets ran on could help find a path home "... Only if he's super careful. And swears on his life that they will still work afterwards. No changes, just an examination " They both chuckle, but he gives a serious expression as he carefully unlatches the bracelet and set it on top of his old clothes, almost tenderly.

Picking them up, he heads to the door, which Carol opens, realising that his seriousness wasn't just because they were important to his transformation, but also because they were the only things left form his home world he had left. "Your going to have to repeat that to Tony and Hank, but I'm sure they'll understand."

Giving a nod, the three head downstairs, to boisterous laughter and casual chatter. Once he appears, the room goes silent, before a large, blonde guy with a helmet in hand and strange clothing approaches.

Carol quickly snatches the bundle in his arms when he feels the man clap a hand onto his shoulder and then a bear hug. This wasn't a clap like he does with Joe, this was more like him applying his full strength on Jinpei's shoulder. Basically, his whole body was jarred and he fought to keep his footing, then crushed from the hug. "Hail friend! I am Thor Odinson of Asgard. I've been told that you are Ryu Nakanishi of the, Science Ninja team?" He glances back to check, which they nod, grinning. "Welcome to our world!"

_He's nothing like Ken! He's like, like, a cross between Joe and Me! On Steroids! _Unsure about how to react although looking like a deer in the headlights probably wasn't the best thing. He was twice as tall as well! That wasn't normal! Well, he I a demi-god... right? "Um, yes. Thanks?"

Thor looked pleased. "Worry not Ryu! For Tony and Hank will figure out a way to get you home!" Well, he was loud, but he was trying to reassure him, so he gave a smile to the giant.

Carol meanwhile was grinning as she handed the bundle to Tony, who face lit up in a mixture of disgust and excitement. Hank started hovering near him, poking the clothing and commenting about checking the make-up of the fabric. Casually talking between one another, they both head to the lift and takes it down to the labs. Shaking her head, Carol turns back and smiles at the group. "Well, since we're all here, why don't we order pizza? Then we can tell you all about Mr Horned Owl's debut!"

That got a curious noise and a cheer from the group as she went to the phone and began doing a large order.

Hopefully, she'll leave his underwear out of it. And possibly the bruise to his side. He does rub it slightly, wincing as the bruise settles. He catches Steve looking in his direction with a concerned look and he gives a timid grin and gestures to the girls. "They'll explain it..." Which means that they were going to have to mention the bruise.

Still, at least the underwear will be left out of it.

"Ms Van Dyke, I have just received a confirmation about the order you placed to 'Japan's underwear emporium'. The packages will arrive within one to two weeks." Oh god, was nothing sacred!? He caught amused grins from the group, although Thor looked a little confused but he was also grinning. Most likely because he was red.

"Thanks JARVIS!" Why did she have to sound so smug about it too? At least noone was asking about it.

"I do not understand. Why would you need to order underwear from Japan? Didn't the mall of shopping you went to have any in his size? He's not as big as Volstagg but I can always ask if it's needed." Well, that was both amusing and embarrassing. He did look confused as well.

"Don't worry Thor, it was more fashion than not having any. America may have access to a lot of different types of underwear but you tend to only get" Ryu interrupts Janet there, virtually shouting out to drown out that particular line of answering. He just knew if it continued on he'll be glowing red.

"So who were those guys you two shoved me towards and had me beat up!" Torn between answering the question and teasing him further about his underwear, it was Steve that saved him and began an explanation.

"Well, you see. They are called the Wrecking Crew..." This was going to be good.

* * *

_**A/N:** And that's end of this chapter._

_His first *real* fight in this universe! Whoo! Against the Wrecker Crew, simply because they have been in Ultimate Spiderman so often which I've been watching and they did seem kinda petty like that._

_And a drive for the future! That's right! He's going to be getting a new God Phoenix later on (and fyi, it's going to be the OVA one since that just looks cool!)_

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while i shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	5. Instincts & Chaos

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real. Also, slight time skip_

* * *

In a flurry of activity, Ryu does a flip over his opponent and reaches for a railing, swings around it and then perches himself on top. With some sweat beading down his face, he watches his current opponent with a critical eye, noting any pattern's that he could exploit. Seeing a gap, he gives a grin, before heaving himself forward and darting in between his opponents though the gap that was made. Flashing out one arm, he grabs hold of a spinning bar, gracefully loops up and perches himself on top of it.

Keeping his balance stable, he waits for a few seconds, his mental calculations echoing in his mind before he jumps up, using the momentum the bar was spinning at to accelerate his speed and distance. Flipping over, he plants his feet on the wall and pushes off of it, keeping his momentum steady. He catches a glint out of the corner of his eye and twists himself in mid-air, narrowly avoiding the projectile being shot at him, before snapping a few shots from his own gun back.

Landing, he gives a quick survey of the area, noting Steve's and Janet's position. He gives a grin when Steve slides underneath a fairly fast volley of projectiles and fire back a volley from his own weapon. Figuring he was still long enough, he tenses his muscles in preparation to jump forwards, only to catch another volley of shots being fired at him. Pushing back, he keeps hold of the rail and instead swings underneath it and the attack, launching himself into the air, twisting and then firing a volley at whoever was targeting him. He feels something whiz by close to him and catches a loud gasp, he grins as he lands on another railing, pushes back and drops to the floor.

Looking up, he sees Carol fly down, a splatter of red on her shirt as she gives a glare at the perpetrator Janet gives a grin and steps out from the corner, her own gun in one hand as she dramatically blows the tip. Steve rounds the corner as well, gives a nod at Carol before quickly asking them who was left. As they rattled off names, Steve gets hit on his side. Crying out in alert, both he and Janet dive as well, only to also get hit, him on his chest and Janet on her stomach, both landing on the ground with an oof as they tenderly touch the spot where they were hit.

A few seconds later, the lights in the room suddenly turn on, and the obstacle course they were on recedes into the ground. Checking the colour of the hit, he sees purple paint and gives a blank look, before groaning. He looks up, spots Clint on top of the highest point in the obstacle course and gives an annoyed frown. He checks his companions, noting that both Steve and Janet also were hit by the purple paint gun, although Carol was still rubbing the red paint off her chest, giving an annoyed look at Janet as she huffs out in annoyance. "You know, I thought it'll be a bit more fair if Hawkeye was on his own, but noo... everyone against everyone and he still hit all of us! And when did you three join up?"

Tony approaches the group with a blue splatter on his chest, something which Steve flashes a smirk. "So, maybe we should have him wear a blindfold as well?"

Clint finally lands nearby, and gives a grin at the group "Well, your all getting better. I had to use a bit of effort to get you all this time!"

Steve shakes his head, chuckling as he holds his gun over his shoulder. "It was nice that you waited till one side was out before taking us all out. Still, the enemy or my enemy is my friend. Jan and Ryu asked if they wanted me to join and I thought, why not."

Janet finished off the explanation. "I figured, with you flying around it'll be unfair for the rest of us. And Tony. Well, I always wanted to hit him."

Carol shrugs as said genius splutters. "Who wouldn't?"

About to comment, JARVIS suddenly piques up. "Mr Stark, I have a call for you from Ms Potts. You are late for a meeting with the board and have yet to sign off on project GP-05-77."

Tony gives a look at his watch and grimaces "Yeah, I'm going to have to get going since everyone seems to want to hit me. See you all later or something. Maybe Living Laser will cause some havoc and get me out of that meeting or something..." He trudges away, stumbling when he feels several impacts on his back. Looking back, the others all whistle innocently, before grumbling and peeling off the safety suit and gloves to expose his casual clothing.

"Sir, I was also asked to ensure you remember the suit in your room. Ms Potts was quite adamant you not forget it for the CEO party this evening." A groan comes from him as he changes direction form his suit hanger room to the lift, heading up to the room he picked out himself.

The group gives a chuckle as he trudges away, possibly wondering if he could create a hologram of himself to attend these meetings. The group starts dispersing, heading off to do their own thing with the spare time they have left.

* * *

**Avenger's Mansion: 5:27 PM**

Ryu decides to head upstairs, change out of the protective suit and into something more comfortable. Heading to the lounge, he props himself up on the couch, rests his hands on his stomach and closes his eyes, ready for a nap. He was immediately disturbed when he feels the sofa sink to the side slightly, causing him to crack and eye open and shoot Clint an annoyed look.

"So kid, how did your fight go yesterday?" Ah, that fight. It's been a week since he joined up and he has been out with the others several times already, handling some small time crooks and some bad guys.

"Was this before or after the Hulk got to the machine?" He remembers the machine in question. A supposed Arctic creation gizmo that would have brought the world to an ice age or something like that.

"Before. Cause I hear afterwards, it gets boring." Clint did sound curious, so with a sigh, he sits up straight, rests both of his hands on the couch between his legs, leans forwards and starts retelling the tail of epic beat-downs.

"Well, as you know, I was paired up with Hulk since you and Steve were infiltrating and we were the distraction. Well, it went all according to plan. I was going around kicking as, I mean butt, Hulk was going around smashing stuff and people were generally getting their butts handed to them. The usual." He was being careful about profanity here, simple because Janet was still in the building. Ever since the found out how bad his language could get she seemed to take it upon herself to make him lessen the bad language. Something about setting an example or something.

"So we get attacked by some ninja guy. So no problem right, I'm a ninja, he's a ninja, I'll kick his butt. It's inevitable. So there I was, getting ready to follow tradition when the building shakes. We both fall over, wondering what the hell happened."

Clint gives a chuckle and interrupts him to explain. "We destroyed the machine. It may of made everything rumble a bit but it was all safe."

Ryu shrugs. "Anyway, there we both were, a little confused when I decided to be awesome and KO the guy. So I push off the ground and shoot straight at the guy, grabbing the sides of his head and then..."

He was interrupted by what sounded like heavy feet stomping on the ground and then a deep voice. "If I recall, you actually tripped and cracked your head on his." They both look up and give a grin/scowl at the green Giant, who casually nods at the pair. "Hawk, Owl."

The Hulk, the strongest Avenger. It was both a shock and awesome to finally meet the guy, especially with what everyone was saying about him. He apparently made a very good impression, mainly because he stared for a few seconds at all his muscles (and wishing he had that tone as well), broadly grinned and then pointing at Tony while exclaiming really loudly "I told you Green was awesome! Old Fashioned my Ass!" Apparently, he was on the Hulk's good side after that (although getting slapped on the back of his head by Janet for using such language was worth it in his opinion). Good thing too, after what he saw from him smashing machines and dealing with normal bad guys, he was glad he was on their side.

"I planned that trip! It went exactly as planned. The guy was knocked out with minimal effort and probably has a concussion or something around now! He'll now think twice about being a bad guy now." Clint was in hysterics, clutching his sides as he laughed it up. Ryu just rolled his eyes, huffs and crosses his arms in a pout. The sofa then lifts up and makes a groaning noise as the big guy sits himself down on the end.

"Sure you did. It was well worth getting shot at several times to laugh at you two. I thought Ninja's were meant to be graceful on their feet, not stumbling and head butting one another." The big guy was grinning now, remembering the scene in question.

Ryu just groans and palms his face. Why always him. Sure, he wasn't as graceful as the other members of the Science Ninja team, but seriously, why was he the only one who did these hilarious things. Why not someone else so he could laugh at them as well.

Grumbling to himself, he grabs a handful of popcorn that was left on the table from the previous night. It was nice, watching a film from their world. What was it called? He spots the DVD box nearby and picks it up, flipping it over to read the back again. That was right. Star Wars: A New Hope. Jinpei and Joe would of liked it as well. The others mentioned that it was one of the things to do on their world and even Steve was into it. He was looking forward to tonight, they were watching the next part to it. Although a little confused about why they were watching it starting from 4 to 6 then 1 to 3, he was assured that it was the best way to watch it.

Janet pops her head from the doorway, looking at the three males lazing away on the couch. Giving a grin, she steps from the doorway in a new dress. The Hulk blinks in confusion, Clint swallows his water down the wrong hole as he chokes while Ryu just freezes in place. She was in a really pretty dress that had the two of them blushing and staring at her in confusion. "So, you boys like?" She gives a twirl, and then flashes a grin at the three.

"Jan! Whoa! What's the occasion? Big Date tonight or something!?" Clint was just jabbering on. Ryu was mimicking a fish and the Hulk just looked confused.

"Got that right! Finally managed to get Hank away from his research and promise me to a dinner! I even had JARVIS remind him every 5 minutes about the dinner and to shut down all non-essential things in his lab if he doesn't come!" Ryu was still foundering with what to say, his cheeks a bright red. "Heh, your almost as red as last week's talk about your underwear Ryu." That shut his mouth pretty quick, crossing his arms again and looking away.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She was not letting him live it down. A whole week away and she would bring it up every now and then. Sure, he was the only person on the Science Ninja team to wear them, but he grew up in a fishing village and they were the social norm. No amount of city living or convincing from the others could convince him otherwise. That and they were comfortable to him. Still embarrassing having them talked about by the others though.

She sticks her tongue out at him as she turns to the door and gets ready to leave and find Hank. "Well, nyah to you to!" That wasn't mature, but he was now beyond mature words right now. Good thing he didn't take too much inspiration from Joe. He could picture a few hundred things that guy could say, of which most of them would result in a slap or a zap to a delicate area. Still she was gone and both his companions were laughing it up. Deciding he had enough of their company (and being teased), he gets up and heads out of the room. He spends a bit of time just wandering around, before deciding to head up to the roof.

* * *

**Avenger's Mansion Roof: 5:52 PM**

The evening breeze was delightful. Refreshing and relaxing. Deciding to find a spot to sit at, he spots the guardrail nearby and decides to perch upon it. No matter how clumsy he was in combat, when it came to perching himself on something thin, he could do so with ease, just like the other members of the Science Ninja team. He watches the sun starting to go down, blinks and then looks at the activity that was usually happening outside in the world.

The first thing that catches his eyes is the tourists snapping shots of the Avenger's Mansion. Apparently, Tony and Hank has something that makes spotting someone on the roof and through windows impossible whilst leaving the front lawn open for press and the likes. That ensured they could do what they want and no one will be able to find out their identities (if they had one).

Giving a grin, he turns his gaze at the next thing that catches his eyes, the hot-dog vendor across the road. Giving a broad grin, he does some mental calculations on how much a hot dog would set him back. Figuring he could do it later, he continues scanning the area, before catching movement down below.

Leaning forwards slightly, he watches Janet stomping out the door with Hank trailing behind her. He was in a haphazardly thrown on suit, trying to talk to her but failing pretty badly. Must of said something to annoy her. Hailing a taxi, the pair gets in and head off to the city. Thinking about it, he probably didn't notice her dress. Seems a lot like him, missing the obvious things that weren't to do with science. Giving a chuckle, he spots the Park to the side. "Why not. I can always do with some fresh air." Standing up, he transmutes into his bird-style, spreads his wings and casually comments. "JARVIS, I'm heading to the park. Be back in a while."

"Of course sir. Should I have the cook set some dinner to the side for you?"

"Yes please, and thanks JARVIS. See you later!" Leaning forwards, he takes off to the park, heading into the tree line and away from the hustle and bustle of New York life...

* * *

**Central Park: 6:12 PM**

Soaring through the trees and weaving between branches, he hops around, keeping in motion and just enjoying the freedom the bird-style gave him. Bouncing between branches and trees, his face was the epitome of joy, occasionally jumping up clear of the trees and just gliding along the wind. He pauses near the bridge in the park, stabilizing on a branch as he smiles down at the evening joggers and couples enjoying the evening out. As he was about to continue travelling, he spots some nervous looking guy peek out from under the bridge, looks around in nervousness and then pulls back in. Intrigued, he hops a few branches across so he had a better line of sight and settles himself into a crouch, watching the guy. The man checks his watch and jumps as a jogger goes past him.

_Either he is waiting for someone or something is up..._ Checking his bracelet, he matches the time. _6:29... well, if something does go down, it'll be at half past, so oh well._ The last minute went by slowly and he finally catches sight of some guy with a briefcase approaching the guy. Wondering what they were talking about, the nervous guy accepts the briefcase and walks away, very quickly. The man stays still for a moment, before disintegrating into nothingness. Now alerted, he tenses his muscles, and jumps clear over the bridge and into the trees on the other side. He spots the guy walking off and begins tailing him, now curious about what was going on.

As they left the park, he stands on the tree line, takes his cable gun and launches it up onto a nearby roof. He then uses the cable gun to keep up high, hiding in the shadows and trusting the darkening world into keeping his concealed.

* * *

**Warehouse District: 6:30 pm**

The man led him to the warehouse district. Settling himself on the edge several dozen feet high, he watches the man head into a building. Scanning the roof, he spots the window on the roof, before gliding down to it. As he lands, he crouches near the edge, peering down at the almost clichéd deal that was going on. He pulls out his Avenger's ID card and contacts the mansion. Letting Clint and Steve know where he was, he gives a shrug when they asked if he wanted back-up. "It's a couple of random bad guys, what's the worst that can happen?"

Told to describe what they looked like, he gave them a general description of them, relaying the information encase someone wasn't what they seemed. The reply he got back was comforting. "Nothing to serious it seems. Just a few small times crooks, a few linked to the Kingpin but overall no-one too dangerous. Heh, JARVIS just pulled up the CCTV of the room. They are all quite stupid it seems, not realising the building had CCTV."

Giving a chuckle, he decides to go in and bust it up. Grinning, he whispers Ken's favourite quote. "Sometimes one, sometimes five; the white shadow that moves unseen." Carefully opening the window, he slips in the shadows. As he moves from one shadow to the next, deciding who to take out first, he decides to be dramatic and take as many out as possible in the element of surprise.

Tensing his muscles and readying a batch of feather Shuriken's he leaps to the other side of the room, sending out the flurry of feathers as he lands on the support on the roof. The light was low enough that it didn't make any shadows, although a load of feathers suddenly hitting several people's pressure points and making them collapse into unconsciousness probably clued them in. Then chaos erupted, the men jumping back and grabbing guns, pointing all around them and shouting for whoever was out there to show themselves.

Hearing the building cause an echo, he comes up with a plan, and begins whistling. He whistles the tune he hears Ken whistle before pouncing, letting the building reverberate it all out and into their souls. He could see several of them lose their nerve and bladders, wondering who the hell it was, before he stops encase they fled. He then, reworded the words Ken tended to use, making them more relevant to his situation. "Sometimes one, usually many; the Green shadow that moves unseen. Mimizuku no Ryu!" He transfers himself from English to Japanese when announcing his name, having had plenty of practice doing so. It still unnerved him about suddenly learning a language he never knew before, but he was getting used to it.

He does grin as he watches them all panic, glancing around before shooting at a silhouette of a bird that decided it didn't like the noise the group was making. Wincing in apology to the bird (and a little glad it got away unharmed), he jumps down while all their backs were turned.

Landing on one guy and backhanding the one next to him, he KO's two in one shot, before pouncing forwards, grabbing a guy by the shoulders, flipping over him and throwing him at the assembled masses before they turned around fully. As he launches his screaming projectile, he dashes forwards, entering the midst with open-palm slaps and kicks, mowing the group all down in a green and brown flurry of martial arts and feathers. The last few guys remaining were all that was left several seconds later when the door in the back opens up. Everyone pauses as a hooded guy enters the room. Following him are some goons...

Then his mind went blank. Although the head was different and it they were wearing yellow in addition to the costumes, they were all dressed remarkably similar to Galactor's goons. Frozen in place, age old training to deal with this conflicted with his recent and current training, leaving his body confused and his mind conflicted. He could hear his Avenger's ID badge suddenly light up and Steve's voice, calling out for him to get out.

"Well now, isn't this a surprise. The newest Avengers, here and all alone... Well then, welcome to HYDRA!" The man zips forwards at high speeds, shocking his brain into action. Except, his old battle instincts were overriding his current ones. Leaning back to avoid the scythe, he back flips away, kicking the blade up as he slams his foot down hard on the next guy's head, slamming him into the floor. Hopping back, he jumps and twists to avoid the next slice, planting a hand on the flat of the blade and kicking out, before twisting his body again, this time avoiding a hail of laser fire.

He slid underneath the blade on the next swing, jumps back and flips in the air, grabs the last remaining bad guy and kicks him hard at the reaper, ignoring the shocked expressions on their faces. Back-handing the guy rather than eviscerating him, he holds up one hand and tilts his head at the Owl. "Interesting fighting style... Who are you?"

Speaking coldly and with a simmering rage he barely knows, his voice almost drips with venom as his mind was connecting the goons with Galactor's goons. "The Horned Owl..."

"I'm the Grim Reaper. Interesting way to solve that problem. I have a reputation for being harsh and you could of sent that guy to his death." Ducking down, he throws a handful of feather shuriken at the goons that was taking aim at him, disabling two and lethally taking down another under the watchful eye of the Reaper, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Take down your opponents quick, you can't afford to waste time watching behind you out there..." His voice sounded slightly hollow as he suddenly launches forwards, flinging out more feather Shuriken's at the Reaper. Deflecting the feathers with his scythe, he attempts to slice through the Owl, only for him to twist around him and rush past. Blinking in confusion, he turns to continue the assault when he pauses, a strange look coming over his face as he witnesses the lethal style of the Owl.

A jab to one guy's throat and grabbing another by his neck, he hops up, feet on the stomach of the guy he just jabbed and pushes him into the laser fire of his compatriots. Using the guy he was choking as a stand, he hefts himself up, and out of the way of a knife attack, yanking back with one arm whilst flipping himself up and over. As his companion stabs his fellow HYDRA goon, he twists and jumps, wings snapping open as he angles his descent to the firing squad.

As he lands, he cartwheels to the side, avoiding a burst of fire as he approaches. Jumping up, he narrowly avoids getting sliced by the Reapers scythe, flipping over and landing behind the goons. Displaying some flexibility he kicks up and then bends his knee, wrapping one leg around one guy's neck as he grabs the gun from the next. Forcing his leg back, he forces the guy to fall head first onto the ground as he switches the gun to auto fire and sprays the area around him.

Arcing his body around, he spins almost completely around before pushing back, rolling backwards until he was standing again. He faces the single remaining goon and the almost sadistic look on the Reaper. There was a stand-off, both sides waiting for some signal.

"Impressive. And Violent. Never expected that from someone so endeared by the public. Tell me, what caused this? The Avenger's would never approve of such violent methods..."

Ryu blinks and frowns. "War... And death. Galactor..." He winces, clutching his head as his vision blurs, his thoughts cloudy as the adrenalin was making it harder to think rationally. What was happening? He misses the Reaper move, but catches the glint of metal approaching. Leaning back, he avoids getting sliced in half, rather he gets cut along his chest. Gasping in pain, battle-tried instincts strike out again, Jabbing at a pressure point in his non-scythe arm earned a satisfying pop as he dislocated it, causing the reaper to cry out. Kicking the scythe, he forces the blade to slice the man's temporary useless arm along the shoulder, causing him to jump back in alarm.

Dashing forwards, he leans back and slides on the floor to slip under the Reaper, grabs the remaining goon's legs and yanks towards him. Falling down, the goon's head hits the Reapers back, causing him to stumble forwards as he pushes off the floor and onto his feet. He turns as the scythe approaches, before a shield hits the guy and rebounds off of him. Glancing in that direction, he spots the Avenger's assembling, Steve in the lead with Clint and Hulk flanking him. Although battle ready, they were both watching the pair wearily. Hulk just leapt forwards, knowing who the enemy was. Hopping back, the Hulk slams into the ground, knocking everyone off-balance...

Except Ryu. As soon as the Hulk was near the ground, Ryu hopped up, avoiding the shaking as he grabbed hold of the green giant's shoulder, vaults over and attempts to ram his foot on the scythe guy's head. Missing by an inch, he still has enough balance to shoot his other leg up and into the reaper guys' face, knocking him back.

As he leapt forwards to ram his fist down the guy's throat, he suddenly twists, avoiding Clint's arrow (much to his surprise) and Steve's outstretched arm (much to his surprise). Twisting and shifting on the balls of his feet, he literally dances around the three Avengers and the Reaper, striking out and avoiding his ally's attacks when he was in the way. Running on pure instinct, he manages to avoid them for a full 10 seconds before Clint and Hulk focus on the Reaper and Steve focusses on him.

This teamwork based instinct was invaluable to the Science Ninja team, where the second to give orders or relay their position could kill them. Although not members of the Science Ninja team, a few days of practice has already given general ideas on what to do as a team in his mind. Steve was like Ken and Joe combined, when he is nearby give him space to perform, Clint was Joe and Jinpei, keep in mind his weapons and dart around as needed. The only problem was Hulk, but his fighting style was simple to work around, a little like his in some respects. While in normal situations this would be advantageous, when a member of the team goes out of control it's difficult to subdue them unless given the order to fall back.

Apparently now aware of this, Steve was focussing his efforts in grabbing the Owl whilst Clint and the Hulk take on the Grim Reaper. With this single focus, it only took a moment for him to grab hold of the Owl's arm. Using his own balance against him, Steve twists so that Ryu fell towards him where he caught and held him in a Bear Hug. Ryu struggles for a moment, confusion drifting around when Steve manages to shout out. "Stand Down Owl!"

Stopping his struggling, he looks at Steve, eyes no longer dilated from the instinct. "Just... Stand down! Head outside, take a moment to breathe and focus!" Confused, he is about to question it when he is pulled towards the door, the room shaking as the Hulk hits the ground a little too hard. But through all of this Steve keeps Ryu focussed on him.

Looking rather lost, he feels the fog of confusion start to lift as what he did came flying back at him. Freezing in place and snapping his head to where the bodies of HYDRA goons lay, he spots the broken and bloody bodies littering the floor. His hand is grabbed and he is dragged the rest of the way outside, no longer having the will to fight back. Now that they were no longer a threat, he could see the differences they had between them and Galactor and came to the realisation that he just killed a bunch of soldiers from this world. A world that abhors death no matter whose side they were on.

* * *

Outside, before anything could be said, the Owl collapses to his knees, dry heaving as he remembers exactly how he took them down earlier. He feels someone rub his back and in a gentle voice, Steve telling him to breathe. It was several moments when he could breathe normally, before he shifts his position to sit on his backside. "I, killed them... Didn't I..." He looks dead ahead, not seeing Steve wince as he places his hand on the Owl's shoulders.

"Are you usually that difficult to stop in a fight?" A distraction, something to get his mind away from the death he inflicted.

"Instantly adapting to the situation when there were allies around and a certain amount of enemies to take down, avoiding friendly fire in the haze of battle whilst keeping a clear picture of your allies position and current status with the minimal amount of time to catch this information? The Science Ninja Team's teamwork is the best in the world... It makes... going out of control dangerous... Usually we don't stop until we have won or the order to retreat is given. It's instinct after all this time..." He gives a hesitant smile up at his elder, but it was obvious that there were other things he wanted to know first.

Steve gives a sigh, before standing up. "Can you get back to the mansion? We'll talk there."

Giving a hesitant nod, Steve re-enters the building, leaving him out in the fresh air. Rising to his feet, he fumbles for his cable gun and fires at the rooftop. With his body quaking so much, the first shot misses which causes him to curse, and then spend a minute to get his nerves back under control. He then launches it up again, connecting and then zips up. He heads back to the mansion, worried about everyone's reaction... He looks at his Bracelet, checking the time in an effort to distract himself.

**6:52 pm**

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ And that's end of this chapter._

_A, fairly violent one that also touches on the emotional trauma's a war (should) inflict upon a bunch of impressionable teens along with the stress of saving the world AND being essentially the only group capable of doing it._

_Heroes in the Marvel-verse, although do this on a daily basis, they should know that there are others out there that will take up the reigns and help. Shield, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, Dare devil, Spiderman... Even the reserve Avengers. They have a huge network of allies that can help for world-wide calamities like Galactus and the like._

_The Science Ninja team... They have Red Impulse. That's essentially it. A small group of fighters that join in every now and then, but they've reached the point where their numbers are falling, putting even more stress on the 5 ninjas. And when the only thing keeping the world safe is 5 Teens and a dwindling special ops group, the stress will constantly be rising. And no, I'm not including general military in this. For one thing, Galactor has proven time and time again that all the tanks and fighter jets in the world are useless against their mecha's. Hell, even Red Impulse has a really difficult time taking them down. The God Phoenix is the only thing that does this on a semi-regular basis._

_So yeah, more stress and Trauma's and the only other group that knows how you feel is the other members of the team. Now cut off from them, Ryu has to handle the stress on his own. Unlike the others though, he can tell when he's starting to break and he isn't ashamed to ask for help. Now that he has a degree of trust with the Avengers, he now has people to talk to and with all these memories of Galactor being brought back up into his mind AND faced with the knowledge that he killed 'innocents' (Not that they are innocent, but in the marvel-verse killing is generally frowned upon)_

_And my reason for making Ryu difficult to stop when operating under instinct. To me, the Science Ninja Team's teamwork is top-notch. The Avengers can do teamwork, but then there is 'teamwork'. And Gatchaman and the team is virtually the pinnacle of teamwork. I mean, they have formations that allow them to use special moves. It took to being virtually blinded for the formation to be disrupted. That and they, quite often, seem to know what they are all thinking. Ryu associated Steve and Clint with members of the team, and as such responds as to how he would respond to them in a fight._

_Also, there may be a reason for the time thing. I thought I'll try it out. It may be relevant later on._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes or even questions you have that I haven't explained very well. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	6. Traumas and History

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

_Warning, this chapter will contain some sad stuff. _

* * *

**6:56 pm**

Ryu couldn't get the thought out of his head. His instincts were conflicting with his training, something that was nurtured and grown throughout the war against Galactor was not useful at all in this world. Triggered after seeing HYDRA and their goons for the first time since he arrived in this dimension, it was quite overwhelming to do, to the point that he didn't even realise he was using skills that should only ever be used on Galactor. The similarities between the goons were uncanny, the green outfit, the yellow trims, the general air of 'I'm going to kill you and fail', but now that he could think on it properly, he realized that there were some differences. Not a whole lot but some. If he ever encounters them again, he is going to have to focus on those differences rather than doing a quick overall glance. That way he won't automatically go for killing strikes...

He winces a moment later. No, he can't do that. Catching their body's movements was important in figuring out where they were aiming and moving away from that spot. Besides, he was going to be returning to his world someday soon, so he may need those instincts to deal with them. All these conflicts were causing a storm to brew in his mind, the desire to suppress the instincts that only serve him well back home whilst keeping them honed and ready for when he returned...

Thinking back, he starts questioning whether he actually wanted to return home. It was so peaceful here, in comparison to home. War wasn't constantly on the doorstep, death wasn't always surrounding them and on the news and even when it was, a hit and run was a lot more easier to handle than seeing an entire country go up in flames. Call him morbid, but at least these people still had neighbours to help them, to having some government capable of reacting. Hell, other countries were even giving the struggling ones supplies and aid.

Landing on the railings on the roof of the mansion, Ryu stays perched there, contemplating his future. The peace of this world was an attractive prospect and he was sorely tempted.

Then he remembered the team. Ken and Joe, Jun and Jinpei, his family, his father, mother and little Brother. Even Doctor Nambu. Looking up, he blinks when his vision becomes blurry, before feeling something wet travel down his cheek. Now homesick again, his shoulders shake as he suppresses the urge to cry out. Hopping off the railing, he steps over to the wall, leans against it and slides down until he was sitting with his back to the wall. He hugs his legs and rests his head on his knees, his emotions now just wallowing around him as he sniffs...

* * *

**7:08 pm**

The door opening is what Ryu next heard, but he couldn't find the strength to look at who it was. Although from the sounds of the hesitant footsteps, it sounded like one of the guys rather than the girls. So either Clint or Steve. Moments later, he hears someone sitting next to him, their breathing calm yet tense.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He recognized that voice. It was Steve. Looking up, he glances at the Captain, who gives a more softer look upon seeing his face through his visor. "Let me guess, instinct and training conflicting?"

Unable to say anything, he just nods and settles his head back down on his knees. "You know, you should really talk to someone about it. What you did there isn't something the Avenger's do."

Ryu just nods again and clutches his knees closer. "If you ever want to talk, just let me know. I'll al"

"I didn't tell you all everything... back then..." Interrupting him, his voice sounds oddly hollow, yet slightly raw. "Usually we can just draw strength from one another... But they're not here now... I'm all alone..."

Steve gives a nod and settles himself down nearby. "I won't judge. I saw a lot of this happen in the war, so just lay it all out. Best to get it off your chest so we can help" ... Boy would he come to regret that.

"Galactor... How I described them last week, was a tame version. I'm sure you gathered that, I mean, you all were giving me looks as if you knew I wasn't telling the whole truth but none of you really called me out on it."

Steve gives a brief nod. "What you told us was bad enough... We decided to respect your privacy somewhat and let you tell us in your own time."

Ryu gives a hesitant smile at that, "The real version is far more bloodier and violent. Far, far more..." He leans back a bit, looking upwards and at the darkening skies.

"Our first, official encounter with Galactor was because they sunk a cruise ship. Over 400 men, women and children died from the boat sinking, the resulting explosions or them making sure nothing was remaining. No one was left alive and we didn't have a clue how they did it at first." He gives a sigh, remembering their very first mission. "We launched the God Phoenix and explored the area, trying to uncover how they did what they could and get to the bottom of it. Our Primary mission was to locate their headquarters, which will allow us to cut the head off of the organisation..." He trails off, before sighing.

"Slightly off topic, we still haven't found the headquarters yet and I'm not even sure if Ken and the others are even alive. I go and get caught in an ambush and I can't even get out of that intact. Some member of the team I was..." He trails off when he feels a hand rest on his shoulder, the unspoken words letting him know that they'll figure something out eventually. Ryu gives another hesitant smile, before continuing the story. "We managed to find the mecha. Ken and Jun infiltrated whilst I had to keep Joe from launching missiles at the thing, as his his usual strategy for mechas. When the bottom opened up and Ken gave the order, I headed on in and landed." He gives a smile, remembering the ensuring chaos.

"Our first official fight was just under a year ago. Started it off with the Science Ninja technique Tornado fighter. Once we built up enough force and destabilised everyone, we separated and engaged the enemy. It was like a dance of death. Bullets flying everywhere, us virtually dancing between and around everything, beating up the bad guys. Those were the days." He gives a fond smile, not catching the concerned look on Steve's face, now wondering how badly damaged these teens were to enjoy 'dancing with death'. "We kept beating them, over and over again. But..." His face drops again as he rests his forehead onto his knees.

"We were always, ALWAYS too late. They were too good at evading capture, the leader himself was on board virtually every mecha and he always escapes somehow. We swear that a single escape pod is built into each mecha as a basis jsut for the leader to get away. And the amount of casualties keep building up. Galactor doesn't care who gets caught in the cross-fire." He grits his teeth as he suddenly slams his fist into the wall near him, his rage flaring up within his own turmoil of emotions. "They didn't care at all! So many people dead, just to further their own gains... Even their own soldiers was fair game most of the time. Yet they somehow can convince people to join them." His brief bout of anger melted away to sorrow.

"We were kept in the dark about the death toll. At least, we usually were. We inspired hope and that hope was what kept the world liveable for everyone. We continued on our missions, helping the world and trying to keep Galactor from destroying everything. If we lost hope, how would the world work?"

Steve nods his head in agreement as he rests one hand on the teen's shoulder, conveying some sort of comfort though that action. "Hope is a powerful thing Ryu. It allows simple men to do things they could never do beforehand. Hope is what inspires people to do the right thing. It is ALWAYS worth fighting for."

Ryu gives a brief nod, before shivering. "We lost that hope once... It was in the country of Flanbel. We were asked to help the country and were given a way to sneak into the country through a back door. We separated to scout out the city. It was Christmas time and the Governor handed out presents to all the children in some parade, virtually everyone in the city was out there, celebrating the occasion. It was such a happy day. Except..."

He looks down and sniffs, his body starting the shake as he feels both the rage and sorrow of those events flash back up in his mind. "The Governor was working for Galactor. Those bastards put some kind of poison gas in all those presents." He doesn't catch Steve's look of horror. His own memories of Christmas time was something even the enemy celebrated during the war and violence on those days was minimal. To have such a tragedy occur on such a special day. He was getting a pretty good picture of what Galactor was like. "On our patrol, Ken came across a dead family with the present on the table. An entire family, gone in an instant. Me and Jun rushed to the next door neighbours but they were also dead. So many people were just laying there, dead. We remembered how many people attended that celebration .. All the children getting their presents that had death waiting to be let out... It was horrible..." Ryu's face hardens as he remembers what happens next.

"Once we discovered it was the Governor himself or did this, we went to the place where they had various monuments. We were going to take them down and not regret it at all. We didn't care about our mission any more we just wanted them to pay." His face then softens, the roller coaster of emotions reaching the point where he could see the light. "Then we saw them. 5 Orphans also heading to the place. Heh, from what Jinpei said they had their presents stolen from them by the noble children who wanted more. Heh, it's ironic, the one case where bullying and stealing saved their lives. You could hear us regain our hope that there were survivors. Seeing those kids, it was like a weight was lifted from us."

He gives a grin at Steve, who had his face pooled into a fairly emotionless mask. Apparently the roller-coaster of emotions may of broke his mind, or he was focussing on the story and not letting his emotions get the best of him. "So Ken ordered me to retrieve the God Phoenix. From what Jinpei told me, those 5 kids managed to find Galactor's secret base and Galactor thought they were us. Heh, those morons. So Ken and the others went and beat up the bad guys and brought the kids onto the ship. The mecha rose up and we engaged. The kids were loving it, although it took a while to have Joe and Jun convince them to strap themselves in. Joe eventually took the thing out with a missile so we could finally return to the city. Some people were still alive so we figured we could drop of the kids with them. Most people in these situations tend to forget class and status to band together."

He gives a fond smile. "We wanted to get the kids a present, to make up for the fact that their Christmas was ruined. And the leader of those orphans. Never felt more proud in my life." He looks up, tears trickling down as he gives a broad grin. "He said that they already received the best present ever. To fight alongside Gatchaman. It made us so happy and proud that we swore we will try even harder to keep everyone safe and to continue the fight." He gives a determined expression. "We wanted to know the estimated death toll of that mission. It was such a failure yet such a success, Gatchaman literally demanded to know. Nambu didn't really want to tell us but we kept prying until he gave in. A country of an estimated 5 million with the estimated death toll at around 3.4 million. Although we wish it wasn't so high, we kept that figure in mind and renewed our fight. We wouldn't let Galactor ruin a place like that again."

The Owl gives a soft look at Steve, who nodded his head. "Over the months Galactor had steadily become more and more violent. But we keep on fighting. We've all been hit hard through this war. Ken managed to find out his father was alive all this time and was actually the leader of Red Impulse. He was so happy. I never saw Ken look so happy in my life. And then his father sacrificed himself to save the world from Galactor's latest plot. He literally, found out his father was alive all this time, got to reunite with him and then watched him die."

He sighs. "He went off the deep end. Jun eventually managed to bring him back, but it still shook us all up. He took out his anger on everyone and everything, even tortured a goon for information on Galactor. Then there was Jun almost dying multiple times in our career and she had been captured by Galactor several times before. She still refuses to tell anyone what's happened to her during those times but we can guess... Joe, he has such a vendetta against Galactor that he can be so reckless, on top of being the one most likely to get hurt. Jinpei... He keeps everyone together and grounded, keeping us hopeful and cheerful despite how much he just wants to sit down and cry... Galactor has ruined so many lives... So much death... We all have something to prove. Galactor needed to be stopped." Steve notices something in this part of the rant.

Interrupting at this point, he squeezes his shoulder slightly. "And what about you Ryu? You've mentioned the others but how has the war affected you?"

Blinking, he glances to the side, as if ashamed. "I, I..." He didn't know how to phrase it. That his Father thinks of him a coward and a failure because he can't tell him he's a member of the team that's been protecting the world encase he becomes a target? How he only knows him to drop out of school and high school after such a promising start? How Seiji is both proud and ashamed of him for so many different reasons?

"... I'm the only one in the team with surviving family. Oka-san, Oto-san and Seiji, my little brother. I've done all these amazing things and saved the world to keep them safe, yet I can't tell them anything or risk them getting targeted by Galactor."

He gives a sigh. "And because of it, I have to keep my abilities secret. They've... All they know is that I got accepted to a promising school and then dropped out. They've been more ashamed of me than proud for so long and it hurts. It hurts that they feel so much shame about me and it hurts so much I just want to spill the beans and tell them _everything. _But I _can't_ because then they may get targeted by Galactor and killed for it. Or I'll get blackmailed and have to choose between the team and my family! It hurts that I have to keep it a secret and it hurts that they feel so much shame." He sits himself down after having jumped up during his little speech, resting his head on his knees as his body shakes. Steve could tell he had a lot of problems in his life. Any kid would want their parents approval and having to make them feel ashamed in order to protect them was something no kid wanted to do.

"Not only that, but I'm usually left behind on the God Phoenix during missions _because_ I have family. They may sugar coat it by saying that the God Phoenix doesn't have any auto-piloting functions but it's just a cover for the real reason. Ken actually told me directly once. 'We're orphans. If we die, there's no one who'd shed tears. But you've got a family back home. No matter what, you've gotta stay alive for them!'" Here, Ryu clenches his hand into a fist and slams it into the wall again, this time making a rather large crack from the force. "That _BAKA_! Doesn't he know that even if they were Orphans that people will still shed tears!?" He shivers again as his brief spout of anger cools down to despair.

"Those jerks... I would shed tears. I would cry. I would feel sorrow. They're family, _My family_, even if they don't think so, I do..." He cringes as he tries to hold back the flood of tears, but is unable to do so, sniffing as his body keeps shaking, trails of tears dripping onto his knee as his body reacts to the emotions. "I'm so pathetic..." Steve wasn't trained for this, but then, he could understand what he was feeling. So he just did what he always did. He _trusted_ his gut instincts. He places an arm around him again and brought him close, letting the teen sob and release all his emotions. Sometimes, you just need to vent and right now, Ryu was venting. _Hard__... _He didn't care he was getting tear stains on his suit and Ryu didn't care he was crying infront of a commanding officer, they both knew he had a lot on his mind and despite how mature he sometimes acts, he was still a teenager raised to be a soldier and that had a lot of bottled up emotions just waiting to blow.

"You're not pathetic Ryu. This, Ken simply wants to protect you, not like you need it. Your plenty strong enough as it is." He gives an encouraging smile. "He most likely doesn't want your family to go through the same lost he most likely felt when he lost his father. Losing someone important to you is a painful experience. It tears at your heart in the most painful kind of ways. I know, because I felt the same when I thought that Bucky died."

Ryu clutches his legs closer. "I thought my Oto-san died at one point... He got shipwrecked at sea and Seiji, my little brother wanted me to help look for him. And then a call for the team to assemble came about and I had orders to prioritise team calls than personal things. It tore me in half, hurting my brother like that, making him think I was heartless and didn't care about Oto-san. But the team needed me. By the time I got away from him, it was too late, the transport was destroyed. Trying to protect the next target also failed and people died because I couldn't focus properly. Eventually Ken and Jun figured out what was wrong with me since I wasn't talking and Ken gave the order to move out. He ignored Nambu's grounded order and we launched to look for them. I think Nambu overheard us, because on the God Phoenix he contacted us to let us know that since we couldn't do any protection missions, that search and rescue should be within our current level and gave us co-ordinates to the sea my father got shipwrecked at. It was such a relief to find him alive, that I pretty much didn't care that he was talking about me being lazy to the others. The feeling that my Oto-san could of died, hurting my little brother like that and making him think I didn't care. It hurt so much I... I..." He brings his palm up and rubs his eyes from under his helmet. "It was the single most painful thing I ever experienced. I can understand why Ken went off the deep end and took it out on Galactor and us when his father actually died. If I wasn't wallowing in depression then, I would of done the exact same thing."

The sound of birds chirping helped soothe his scarred mind, seeking comfort in what nature gave him as well as the comfort Steve was giving him. Several minutes later, he was breathing more calmly, now exhausted from the day's events. He gathered his courage. The talk helped him so much, he forgot how liberating talking to someone could be. "Thanks Steve. I, really needed to vent."

Captain America gives a solemn nod. "Sometimes, you just need to let everything out before you can begin to heal. Still, we're going to have to see if we can sort that killing instinct of yours out or at least get it to the point where you can suppress it."

Ryu nods his head, eyes droopy. "Yeah. I'll work on that tomorrow or something..." He yawns before he suddenly rests his full weight on the captain's side. Blinking, he gives a small smile as the Owls steady breathing turns to gentle snoring. Shaking his head, he starts shifting his body so he could carry him inside. The attempt works better when he feels another arm help support the slumbering Owl. Turning, he sees the other members of the Avenger's gathered, many with concerned faces, a few tears here and there and general worry etched on their faces.

"Harsh life..." Steve turns to Tony, and nods his head. With the help of the Invincible Iron man, they had the Owl in his bed, helmet on the side as they watched him sleep. "Not sure what you guys are going to plan to do tomorrow but I have a feeling everything will be a lot better from now on."

"I hope so Tony... I hope so. War has a way of making even the kindest of souls hollow and desolate I hope we can save him before he simply gives up."

The clock next to his bed blinks several times. The numbers **7:53 pm **blinking several times, with Tony commenting as they leave. "Soon. We may not be close to getting him home but I'm also working on a little something that will hopefully cheer him up."

* * *

**9:21 pm**

Jerking up with a start, Ryu places a sweaty palm to his chest, steadying his breathing after the not so nice nightmare ripped into him. Patting his chest once he felt it starting to steady, he looks around, the darkness and coolness was somewhat soothing. Pulling off the covers, he sits on the side of his bed, glances at his bird-style, before standing up and transmuting back to his civvies. Pulling off his clothes and grabbing some spares, he heads to the shower, intent on washing away the nightmare.

As he stands under the running water, he leans one arm against the wall as he thinks back to his nightmare. The absolute sorrow the team was under reverberated through his very soul and despite it being a dream, he couldn't help but feel like it was real. Shivering despite the hot water, he turns around and presses his back to the wall, looking up and closing his eyes. "Why... Why am I dreaming this stuff now? Where was Joe in all this and who was she?" He saw the team in his dream in mourning for some reason, possibly for him but Joe was also missing.

Still, he's been away for a whole week and he was now just starting to get dreams and nightmares about the team? At least his subconscious wanted them to live after the ambush. That was nice to know. Giving another sigh, he rubs his face, before turning the shower off. Staying still for a moment, he shakes his head, drying off in that way that gets the hair somewhat manageable. Stepping out and drying off, he continues to think of the team.

What were they doing now? Assuming they did manage to escape, what was going to happen then? Will they recruit a new member to the team to replace him? Rebuild the God Phoenix? They wouldn't stop the mission, but will have to adapt. Heh, maybe they'll replace him with that girl from his dreams. She was pretty and seemed a bit at ease in the group. He could imagine his bird-style on her, chuckling at the image as he rubs his hair dry.

His thoughts then froze. Without him... The new God Phoenix they would rebuild was vulnerable! Oh god! He remembered Jun wanted to give it a bit more colour! And Joe wanted to put some racing stripes on the side! He could feel more tears well up. His new baby would be completely vulnerable and at everyone's mercy! Oh God... Jinpei would want to bring some animals on! No, take a deep breath. Jun wouldn't allow the pets. Nor would Ken or Joe. Ken would keep things the same. Joe would refuse the additional colours and Jun would refuse the racing stripes. Ok, as long as no-one falters, the new God Phoenix will be safe...

Dry and now clothed in casual clothing, he returns to the roof with a pad and paper, ready to bask in the fresh air whilst plotting what he wanted the new God Phoenix to have. Even this late at night, the City was hustling and bustling with activity. Sitting down on a deck chair, he looks up into the sky, watching the stars through the gaps in the clouds. He relaxes the minutes away, feeling his worries slowly melting to nothingness as he admired the view.

Slowly doodling a fairly good representation of the God Phoenix along with everyone's individual mecha's, he pictures the warship in his mind. At the same time, he pictured the Quin-jet and the features the smaller ship had. Getting several new ideas, his eyes light up as he starts sketching out a whole new design of the ship, planning for improvements and making the design more streamlined. He loses himself in the designs, before he suddenly gives a yawn. Sitting up, he rubs his eyes and heads indoors, having decided that it was late enough and that it was time for bed. Hopefully, his dreams will remain clear and nightmare free.

* * *

**11:39 pm**

Ryu fell out of bed, landing on the floor with an oof, sitting up and glancing around in confusion. Looking up, he blearily looks around in confusion, seeing various things out of place as he rubs his eyes.

"Good Morning sir, I have been informed to gather the Avenger's together for a briefing in the war room, ready for action." Blinking up at JARVIS's comment, he notices a painting was not quite straight. Grumbling, he dresses into his civvies and transmutes into his bird-style. He trudges off to the war room, catching Wasp yawning as she walked by. She pause s upon spotting him, gives a sad look and then rests and hand on his shoulder before moving ahead. _Weird... Unless... Oh god, she heard me talk to Steve last night!_ Inwardly panicking over that revelation, he maintains a, well, deer-caught-in-headlights outward expression. He gets a poke in the side a few moments later from Clint, who nods towards the war-room and rushes off. Closing his mouth, he frowns and chases him.

Several moments later, they were assembled in the war room, most of the group looking tired but ready for anything. Tony comes strolling in a moment later, completely messy as he stumbles to the coffee machine and helps himself to a cup. JARVIS turns the main projector on, showing an image of a large crack in the ground. "I apologise for the early wake up call, however there is a situation down town and Commander Fury has asked you all to head to ground zero for an emergency situation." Looking confused, the group makes an oh expression when some sort of drill comes out from the ground. "Currently, the drill has yet to move from that position. This happened approximately three minutes ago. No changes have come from it since and the police are en route to set up quarantine."

Giving a nod, the group assembles into a Quin-jet and fly towards the drill. Landing on a rooftop, half the group head on down to help maintain a safety zone while the others tried analysing the thing from above. Watching it from above, Ryu glances at Iron Man as he hovers in place, looking down at the machine whilst Yellow Jacket was typing away on a laptop. Glancing down, he gives a sigh, watching as Steve directs a couple away from the location. Hulk decides to punch the thing, but it doesn't even dent. It just stays there, not moving, doing nothing but get in the way. Grimacing, he suddenly imagines it exploding and vaporising the city. _Wow... Morbid..._

"I don't get it. The material is simple steel and titanium alloy mix. How is it resisting everything we send at it?" Tony sounded a little whiny but it was possible because he was still sleepy. "I mean, even the Hulk didn't put his arm through, so how is it doing, this." He gestures at the darkened spot on the side of the drill; Tony attempt at blasting a hole through it was met with the blast doing nothing. As did the second shot, the third and fourth shot before a uni-beam was attempted and failed. Hank decided to examine it up close and Tony was now pouting in the corner, arms crossed as he stood there grumbling.

It took a few minutes of virtually uneventful watching before a dong came out. Looking around in confusion, the drill makes a groaning noise as steam billows out from the gaps in the side. Tony dryly comments on the timing. "Exactly midnight? Seriously? Clichéd much?"

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ And that's end of this chapter. _

_I haven't been traumatized before, so I've got no idea on what happens. But TV, games and other fics have given me a, general idea on what to do so I tried my best to make it as it is. Here's hoping I didn't screw up completely. _

_As you can see, most of the Gatchaman episodes continue like normal, with a few tweaks here and there. The world is a bit more violent than the Anime version and the team draws upon each other for strength. It's easier to do so when the other members of the team suffered exactly what you've gone through. Ryu is still the bastion of comfort for the group, but even he still needs the others to draw upon their strengths. _

_And the stuff about his parents being ashamed. It's a side effect of altering the way Ryu was introduced (because I'm not entirely sure how he was introduced originally). Since the excuse to get him to join was put under being accepted into a respectable college/university (especially since he was a Fisherman's son) brought a lot of pride to his parents, who then find out he dropped out (without telling them) and started his own little fishing/tourist boating thing would probably lead to a bit of disappointment. On top of that, having to come up with weak excuses about not being in contact or skipping meetings altogether since he couldn't tell them he was going on missions, they probably think he is just lazy. And the few times he does visit home, he's evasive about what he does and they can tell he is in something that is dangerous, so they're probably assuming he's in something bad. I'm picturing them subtly telling him that drugs and drinking shouldn't be done and him being all embarrassed or awkward about it, just agreeing hesitantly since he can't actually say that he's fighting Galactor. He probably convinces himself every night that he accepts the shame because it helps keep them out of harms way._

_Also, I ended the fic on the eve of the next battle. So, I hope you enjoy. It's nice to see people reading this. ^^_

_Translations: Encase you didn't know._

_Oto-san: Dad_

_Oka-san: Mum_

_Baka: Idiot_

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	7. Drills, Moles and Hot stuff

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

* * *

**12:00 am**

Ryu gives a glance at Tony, muttering something about cliche's and the sort. Tuning him out, he watches the drill open up, before a blue gas comes out. Eyes widening, he jumps up and to the side, moving to the next building to keep it away. He catches Tony and Hank stare at him. Tony calls out. "Analysis says it's not harmful y'know."

Blushing, he retorts back. "Hey, coloured gas is never safe. If you've met Joe, you'll be doing the same! I nfact, you'll probably be turning tail and running if you did!"

Still, he is hesitant to return, which causes the pair to shrug, apparently not knowing how much trouble Joe could cause. As the blue gas spreads out around the drill, Ryu keeps away from it, still highly paranoid that it'll suddenly cause clothing to disintegrate or reek like hell. Although he trusted the team like family, there was always one hell raiser in a family and Joe was that hell raiser.

His concerns were well placed, because after a large cloud of light blue covered the area, another hiss comes out and the gas rapidly turned green. It quickly covered the other Avenger's as Tony shouts out through his comms systems. "Avenger's, avoid the green gas!" It's a bit too late, as everyone but Thor and Iron man collapses from the effects. Ryu, who kept his distance the entire time, gives a concerned look at Tony, who picks up Hank and brings him over to the rooftop he was on. Thor landed a moment later carrying the unconscious form of Carol and Jan, before muttering something about the hulk being asleep.

"I think this gas may be the first attack Iron man. Many of the Avenger's now lie asleep." Thor gave a glance at the three unconscious ones, before glaring at the large drill. Nonetheless, he returns back down to ground level to retrieve the Hulk. Tony flies back over to retrieve Steve and they both return to the assembled group.

Ryu, with his helmet off, was resting his head on Hank's chest, a frown on his face. "Their breathing seems normal, no bleeding shows any injuries from the gas although some of them have bruises, most likely from the fall..."

Tony gives a grin. "Did I mention how nice it was to have a medic on the team? Anyway, the blue gas was harmless but it did act as a catalyst for the green knockout gas. That's how the green gas spread everywhere so quickly. You were right Owly, coloured gas is never safe."

Ryu frowns as he moves to Steve next, checking for irregular breathing patterns and any poisoning. "Can you _please_ stop calling me that?"

Iron man turns to Ryu and snarkly comments back. "But it's so catchy! and easier to pronounce than 'Horned Owl' and." The rest of his sentence trails off when the drill's top opens up.

Thor gives a grin as he hefts Mjonlir into his hands and thumps his hand against the edge. "About time foul machine." Spinning the hammer above him, the gas suddenly turns from green to yellow. "Have at thee!" Thor suddenly flies into the drill, only to bounce off the edge and into the building nearby.

Tony gives a whistle at that. "Now I really wanna know how it's repelling us so easily. It's like, oh. Would you look at that. It IS giving of a field of energy that's repelling our attacks. Good to know." Yes, with the drill now opening up, there was indeed a shimmer of light in the shape of a drill. It was probably a fraction deep behind the metal, which would explain why their attacks apparently did nothing whilst not even marring the metal. "Well, the wavelengths of the field is constant. Seriously? They have the field just under the metal skin so we wouldn't notice and they aren't even oscillating it? Amateurs A tweak here and..." He launches a repulser blast at the side, creating a small hole.

Thor comes soaring up, arms crossed and an expression which may look like a pout if you squint your eyes. "I dislike technology..." Ryu gave a grin as he was fiddling with one of the pouches on his belt, before throwing a handful of small balls at the hole. Most enter the hole but one pings off the edge, only to explode a moment later. This is then echoed by more explosions from within the drill.

"Well, that was neat. Check out this new toy." Tony raises one arm, points at the hole and, a missile comes out from the arm and launches into the hole.

Ryu sweat-drops. "A missile. You actually have missiles inside that thing? What's next? Gatling guns?"

Tony chuckles. "Nope, that's on War Machine. Although I do have mini rockets that can probably be fired like one."

The Owl blinks stupidly for a moment, before shaking his head. "Forget I even asked..." The three are disrupted when a screech comes out from the now open top, prompting the two to fly up higher to see. "That's Ok! I'll stay here and protect these guys. Absolutely nothing wrong with leaving me alone with a bunch of unconscious and vulnerable people to investigate a sudden noise .." Grumbles under his breath, he was annoyed at them leaving him quite suddenly. "It's not like we're in any real trou" He pauses and looks up, wondering why there was a shadow covering him. He sweat-drops again when some sort of flying creatures were flying out from the top. "Never mind..."

Grabbing a handful of feather Shurikens, he slowly edges closer to the group and adopts a ready stance. A crack of thunder erupts from the top as storm clouds starts circling. Nervously shifting around, he wonders why the creatures were spreading out rather than attacking, not that he was glad for it but usually good things don't last this long. A large flash blinds him and the world quakes from the loudest, and closest bolt of lightning striking into the machine.

A loud cry of, something echoed up from the machine and Ryu was now grateful he was down here rather than up here. Hoping the things would stay away, he edges close to Carol and nudges her none to gently. "Hey, wake up. Something is happening and it sounds awfully suspicious and WHOA BIG!" A claw, if you could call it that, rose up from the drill and grabbed onto the edge of the metal object. At least, it looked like a claw. One that is the size of a school bus but a claw nonetheless. He gives a rough kick to her side. "... Damnit that gas is strong. Ok Ryu... Think... what can I do now? Well, first objective is to get out of the open... soo..." He glances at the Quin-jet, leans down and flings Carol over his shoulder. He then grabbed Jan by the back of her dress and hauls them both into the quin-jet. He repeats this for Steve and Hank before looking out the window.

Whatever was coming out, it was struggling to do so, what with Thor throwing nature itself at the creature while Tony took care of flyers that was attacking the two. He quickly moves around the jet, strapping everyone in the case he had to take off.

Once that was sorted, he hears Tony yell something into the ID cards. Possibly for Clint to hurry up and get there or for some reserve members to wake up and join in. Still, he runs his hands over the controls of the jet, eyes closed as he memorises where everything is. He was hesitant to leave the Hulk out there but he was too heavy and big for him to carry, plus he was virtually indestructible.

Another loud boom shook the jet, rattling everything as he looks up. Thor was really going at it, possibly trying to compensate for the lack of Hulk by being equally ferocious in smashing the giant thing. So that was good. The yellow gas was interesting. He wondered what it was before he hears a groan. Snapping his head back, his eyes rakes over each form, before settling on Hank who was shifting around. "Score!"

Darting over, he starts to gently shake the scientist's shoulder, before it rapidly evolved to vigorous shaking. His eyes were starting to stir, so that was good. He gave a quick slap and the man gasped, brought his hand to his cheek and sluggishly opened his eyes. Deciding that although smart, he probably wanted short and blunt rather than long and complicated for the first few minutes.

"Blue gas made Sleepy green gas spread very fast. Now gas is yellow, big bug is coming out from drill and only me, Thor and Tony are concious. By the way. So called it." Hank gives a groan before trying to get up, only to get jerked back from the straps. "Oh, and your strapped in the Quinjet. Just to let you know."

He gives an annoyed look at the Owl, unbuckling himself. "Could of told me that before I tried getting up Ryu..."

Moments later, Steve and Carol give a groan. Eyes lighting up, he get's his ID badge out and responds to Tony as he approached the two to help their reawakening. "Tony, the others are starting to wake up."

The delighted "Yes!" from Tony was echoed by the doorway hissing open as Hank striding out, a thoroughly pissed off look on his face. Now that Carol and Steve was waking up and Janet was starting to wake up, he gives a whoop of delight, before Tony's voice echoed out from his ID badge. "Bout time you got here Ha, crap! Don't enter the yellow mist either guys!" A few blasts came from the badge before a clunk was heard outside, then something launching back up. "Ryu, bring Hank back in. The Yellow gas is behaving just like the green one." Giving a groan, he darts outside, hefts Hank up onto his shoulder and rushes back into the jet.

Steve was in the process of putting on some kind of orange suit with the help of the two girls as he placed Hank back in the seat, grins mischievously and then buckles him in again. Steve runs out, now dressed in the orange suit and the helmet on, before stopping at the edge of the yellow mist. Slowly stepping in, he waits for a moment, before nodding and then moving in to help the two Avengers in the sky from the ground. The girls were in the process of putting their suits on while Ryu made sure Hank was all right.

They all pause when a thunk is heard on the roof, all three looking up and then at each other. Janet abandons her suit, quickly shrinking and then flying out as Carol starts zipping it up. The sounds of blasts coming out echoed out as Ryu and Ms Marvel both rush out. Ryu throws a few shurikens up before leaping onto the roof to engage the flying things while Carol blasted the few in her way of the big bug. Tony casually comments over the badges. "By the way, Hulk woke up, jumped at the thing and fell asleep mid-air, bounced off the drill and is on the ground sleeping like a puppy. Recorded it for you all to see by the way, no need to thank me."

As he hopped up and performs a roundhouse kick, Carol's voice is slightly quieter from the badge. "You do know he's going to try and rip you to shreds if he sees it.."

"That's why none of you are going to say anything... Right?"

Well, no-one was saying anything. Then again, when you have a flying bug dive-bombing you, you tend to focus on that rather than the conversation. Hopping back then up in the air, he performs another roundhouse kick, putting as much force as he could into it, sending the flying thing to the side and colliding with another bug.

Convenient.

Wings snapping open allowed him to glide to the next one, grab it's feelers, flip it around and then boot it hard in the face towards another flying bug. With the Hulk within the yellow field of sleepiness, it was up to the other Avengers to deal with this bug infestation. And what an infestation. The monotony of the event was disturbed by someone laughing. Looking at the drill, he blinks in confusion when Iron man dead pans over the comms. "Mole man... Seriously? Should you be bothering the Baxter Building instead of here?"

The Mole man said stuff, but he was too far away from the sound of his laughter that Ryu couldn't hear anything. Oh well. Another boot to this creatures head and a punch to another was enough to keep him busy. This Mole man wasn't on the Avenger's dossier he was given in the beginning. So either it was a new bad guy or someone else's bad guy, and from Iron Man's comment, he was someone else's. Why wasn't he throwing bombs again?

Glancing to the side, he spots the Yellow gas. Oh yeah. He didn't know how flammable that gas was. Didn't need this block of the city going boom right? Leaning back, he narrowly avoids getting a claw across his chest, kicking upwards and into the creatures chin. He was getting too distracted... Being in this place has made him a lot more lax than usual. Then again, they had a GOD on their side, so he probably had a good reason to be lax. Still...

Back-flipping off the roof, he lands on the ground, trying to steady his breathing. So much high-speed movements in such a short time had him a little winded. Looking around, he checks that the area was clear, before moving to the edge and peering down towards the base of the drill. Through the yellow sleeping fog, laid the Hulk. Biting his lip, Ryu glances back at the group, before glancing back. He was worried, but figuring that nothing was approaching the slumbering giant, it was safe enough to leave him be. Besides, what could he do? The Hulk was far to heavy for him to lift. He required Thor, or even Tony's suit to be able to lift him. Keeping his thoughts on his fellow green companion, Ryu decides to keep the attack up, digging his hands into his cloak for another flurry of feathers.

His eyes widen after a moment, spreading his wings and patting down the sides in a panic. Now adopting a sad look, he realises that he was now out of feather Shuriken's. Grumbling in annoyance, he looks around and jumps back up onto the quin jets roof. wishing that he wasn't so careless with them. Slipping out his cable gun, he starts using it's air-power to take pot shots at the things. Unfortunately, the air pressure it shoots was quite weak and only really served as a distraction.

Giving a growl, he decides against using the cable gun as a tightrope and fighting on it, instead, taking to the air and starts an aerial assault, beating upon each bug and then using it as a step for the next jump, using his wings to their full potential. He gets clipped by a passing bug, causing him to spiral and land on the roof of the jet with a grunt. A bit bruised, he get's up and wishes the Hulk would wake up and sort that thing out. Jan cam swooping down a moment later, clearing a path with a barrage of stinging blasts as a message from Tony that the gas should start dissipating in a moment.

Moments later, the yellow fog starts dissipating, Iron man coming out from the insides. Almost instantly afterwards the familiar roar of the Hulk echoed out in the area. The green power house jumps up and onto the roof. Snorting, the Hulk gives a feral roar at the drill, before jumping onto the drill. In mid-air, Ryu gives a grin at the Hulk's reappearance before Janet suddenly flies into his line of sight. "Well, I don't know about you but I could really use some more beauty sleep."

With only a few more flying bugs left, all of which was now flying up to the drill, Ryu glides down to a land, before resting his hand on the side of his head. "Yeah... and this head ache isn't helping..." Indeed, his head was starting to pound, giving a glance around before pulling the helmet off and sighing in relief when the cold air caresses his head. Brilliant. Now all he needed was for the flashing lights in the corner of his eye to stop and he'll be sorted.

"Rest does sound good right now." Glancing behind them, they spot Yellow Jacket yawning. Both give him a hard stare.

"Did mister 'I want to fly into that gas' not get enough beauty sleep from the previous two naps he just had?"

Catching some negative vibes from the wasp, he wonders exactly how bad the date went. Deciding to spare Hank a break, he interjects between them both. "Hey, at least you both got to have a nap. I didn't trust the blue gas, and because of that, I didn't get to join you guys in nap land... Itai..." He was now rubbing his temples. This headache felt a lot more painful than his usual ones. Both gave a shrug, as Tony lands nearby.

"Hey, Hulk's smashing, Thor's booming and I'm napping. What say we leave these two to clean up this mess and"

Steve, who just arrived, interjects. "Tony... We need to ensure everyone is safe before leaving. Still. Good work people. Didn't expect that gas to."

Ryu butts in here, annoyed at the throbbing in his head. "Please tell me you weren't all ok with oddly coloured gas rolling around?" Now that he said it, it probably did sound a bit mean and harsh. And these flashes of light in the background didn't help at all. Grumbling, he steps into the Quin-Jet and seats himself. Missing the "What's with him" comment from the group.

He just wanted to return back to his bed and sleep the week away. He never had a headache this bad before... It was a little worrying. It could be because of all the stress from earlier that night, yesterday evening? Several hours ago. He looks at the time, grumbling to himself, before realising that his feather Shurikens could probably be salvaged from a few of the creatures.

Groaning at having to do more work, he nonetheless exists the ship, much to their confusion and beings looking for bodies with his feathers in. By the time Steve let the group know that everything was secure, Ryu gives a sad look at the handful of feathers in his hands. Another thing he was going to lose from home soon. First the God Phoenix, next his Shurikens. What's next? His bird-style? His uniform?

Sitting down he was about to slip them back into the folds of his wings when Tony plucks one from his hand. Shooting him an annoyed look, the man in red and gold armour examines them. "Well, these were neat. Running out are we? ... Should I take that glare as a yes or a 'I want nap time'?"

Too tired to continue argue, he just slips the rest into his wings. "Yeah, I'm running low. Why? Wanna put missiles on them or something?"

Behind his mask, Tony gives a big grin, ignoring JARVIS's comment about it not being recommended. "You know... That sounds like a brilliant idea. I'll see if I can have some more created and stuff. Maybe do a whole trick thing like Clint does?"

Now Ryu looked flabbergasted. Before the headache virtually disappears as his eyes shine in delight. "You mean with the full boom and ice stuff and shocking thing and everything!? That'll be AWESOME!"

Now Clint was pouting, Janet was grumbling about beauty sleep, Carol was wincing at the thought of the Owl with explosive feathers, Hank was pondering something and Steve was giving a slightly nervous look at the pair. Ryu was virtually bouncing in excitement.

Joe would be soo jealous if he was here. He would give his legs and his left arm just to be here after what Tony just said. As Carol runs the final preparations the jet flies back to the mansion. Ryu was now busy talking ideas with Tony. Quietly, Steve gives a grin, before whispering. "Looks like he is still with us."

* * *

A few minutes later, the Quin Jet has landed. Stumbling off the ship, most of the group returns to their rooms, tired and wanting sleep. Tony went to drop off his armour at the armoury whilst Ryu heads back to his room. Too excited to sleep, he walks around for a few more minutes, before taking the notebook with his drawings in it and returns to the roof.

Returning to his spot, he continues sketching and drawing things, before he pauses and looks over the calculations and design specs with a grin. Once done, he turns the page and starts sketching out the team. Starting with Ken in a regal pose. Halfway through, he stops to yawn, before deciding that it was time for bed.

As he heads to his room, he passes by Hank who was talking to Steve about something. Giving a brief wave, they both nod their head to him as he enters his own room. Getting undressed, he slips under the covers and falls asleep...

* * *

The next morning, Ryu was up late. Strolling into the kitchen, he spots Janet nibbling on some toast and stirring a cup of coffee with the other hand. Giving a grunt in greeting, he helps himself to a sugary cereal and some coffee, sitting at the table and begins eating his breakfast of champions. Steve enters the room, looks around before leaving again. Janet gives a shrug. "He's looking for someone I guess."

Ryu shrugs as well. The Coffee and sugar was waking him up and now that he was. somewhat more aware, he looks around. "Sorry about yesterday, um, morning, urgh... A while ago. I had a headache and was running out of Shuriken's."

Janet gives a shrug, before sliding over to him a brown box, a wicked grin coming across her face. "You can apologise by trying these one and letting me know if they are big enough or not." Wondering why exactly she was grinning like that, he peers into the box and spits out his coffee. His cheeks were beet red as he snaps his gaze to her, before stiffly closing the box. Her grin gets wider, before casually commenting in a teasing tone. "... Iiittt'sss eeeeaarl-eeeeey..."

Standing up, he moves to the door when he feels someone yank on his shirt. Pausing, he turns to say what when she slaps the box into his chest. "Try them on... Now!"

His face was now red, before turning and rushing up the stairs. He knew that look. Hell hath no fury like a Women scorned and Janet would be scorned if he didn't do as she says. Slamming his door closed, he presses his back to the door, blushing as he peeked into the box again. Giving a groan, he resigns himself to trying it on. Clothes off, he started trying on the 6 new pairs of underwear he had received confirming that they all fit (and why wouldn't they? It can only really be too short.). Now that his underwear drawer had 5 new things in it, he dresses in his civvies and opens the door. Janet was standing right behind it, a predatory grin on her face.

In a small voice, he answers the unspoken question. "Yes, they all fit. Thanks for that." Beet red, she gives a nod before heading off. Well, that was completely embarrassing and awkward and they were all different colours as well. Great...

Giving a sigh, he heads downstairs, only for Steve to appear out of nowhere, in suit."Ok soldier! Suit up, we have an intense training session today!"

Gaping, Ryu just sighs again, shrugs and returns to his room to put on his civvies, only to see Tony come strolling out with them in hand. "Ryu! Excellent! I'd like your bracelet as well please!"

Now confused, he misses Steve rounding the corner, but does hear him comment. "Tony, he's got a training session with me right now"

Tony sticks his tongue out. "Yeah, but I've had this brilliant stroke of Stark and need his things. So it's going to be either non-suited or some other time."

Ryu blinks and tilts his head. "Did... did you just replace awesome with your surname?"

Tony gives a grin. "Because it happens so often, I changed the word. I already have a patent request being filed as we speak although everyone doubts it'll get through. So, yeah, bracelet please."

Ryu blinks when he feels Steve place his hand on his shoulder. "Come on, we'll do it unsuited then. Get into something comfortable. Your going to be thrown around a lot." Heaving this third sigh of the day, he unlatches the bracelet and sets it on top of the pile, before heading into his room to change... Again. Now in a loose gi, he follows the captain down, ready for his torture, he means, training session.

He watches Steve do some light stretches, before gesturing him to do the same. "Well, what're you waiting for. Start stretching already." Gulping, he wonders if he was going to regret this later on...

* * *

_Several hours later..._

Oh god... He was regretting it. Moving was a painful affair, his body ached from all the stress it was put under. Managing to drag himself into the kitchen, he slumps on the stool and groans.

"Well, you know how to fall and land. I'll give you that. Endurance though... May need a bit of work." Steve strolls in, a towel around his neck and his top off as he rummages for a glass.

Ryu gives a brief groan. "I've done that training before. But how was I supposed to know you wanted to do a sparring match, an endurance rep AND an obstacle course! I feel like a lead weight... Urgh." He shifts his head slightly, resting his forehead against the cold worktop.

A moment later a glass of water is placed nearby. Looking up, he watches Steve down his drink and wipes his mouth with his arm. "Ah. That's the stuff. Drink up, you should re-hydrate yourself after exercise to keep from burning out." Giving a sigh, he just tips the drink back and gulps it all down like a parched guy in the desert.

Now that he had that glass, he stands up and strolls to the sink and pours another. After 2 more glassfuls, he gives a big sigh of relief and thunks the glass on the counter. "I needed that. Urgh. I'm off..." He catches a whiff of himself, grimaces and heads upstairs to shower off.

A long shower scene later, and he strolls out of the bathroom, towel around his waist whilst rubbing his face with another, clearly more at ease. As he heads to his room, he hears something new.

"Heads up!" Looking to the side, he hops back to avoid some blond guy run past him and down the hallway. Quickly clutching his towel that was about to fall off, he was bout to yell at him when another voice echoes out.

"Get back here you punk!" Followed closely by an, orange rock guy with, ketchup all over him? Or was it Hot Sauce? "I'm going to rip you into piec, Ow! Stop fireballing me!"

Blinking in confusion, he shrugs and enters his room. General insanity confirmed, he decides to just ignore it, better for his sanity if he did. A brief change later and he heads downstairs, looking for someone to introduce the two new guys. He spots Janet talking to some other women, who spots him and waves. Jan looks up, grins and tugs her towards him. "Ryu!"Meet Susan! Otherwise known as the Invisible Women from the Fantastic Four."

... Why were all the women here beautiful? Cheeks red a little, he gives a timid hi. She gives a grin as Jan starts explaining to him who the Fantastic Four were. Suddenly stricken with a memory... "Is, the orange rock guy with the four on his chest one of you guys?" An affirmative was given, to which he commented. "So... Is hot sauce an additional outfit or..."

He stops when Susan's eyes twitch. She then marches up the stairs he came down from, yelling out. "JOHNATHON LOWELL SPENCER STORM!" Hell hath no fury it seems. Looking at Janet, she returns a helpless shrug before shrinking and flying after her.

Deciding he didn't want to get caught in the crossfire, he heads to the living room, peeks around, before grinning and hopping onto the free sofa. Stretching out, he lazily settles himself onto it and relaxes. Now that he thought about it, this world really was nice. Hectic, like his own world but friendly. And the people, they were just as nice as back home. Sure, they said things he didn't really understand, whilst the things he said were out of date. Tony definitely made sure to mention it every time he said something that he considered old school. It was like he was the Jinpei or something...

Suddenly shooting up, he realises something. The way everyone was treating everyone, his own feelings for the matter. A grin slowly spreads as he settles himself back down. "Looks like my 'family' just expanded a few dozen times. Heh." Eyes closed and crossing his legs, he settles for a nap, a broad grin on his face.

* * *

_**A/N: **FANTASTIC! Literally! The Fantastic Four is introduced into this chapter briefly and for good reason. I used the Mole-Man as an enemy for the moment and since he's a F4 baddy, it'll make sense to let those guys know that they have him in custody._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while i shuffle ahead with the other drafts._


	8. Level up Ryu!

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

* * *

Ryu thoroughly enjoying his nap. It was relaxing, soothing and highly restoring for his energy levels. It was something everyone would have enjoyed...

Which was completely understandable and would explain why he was annoyed and cranky when yelling and banging noises woke him up, followed by a flaming hot guy barrelling into the room and slamming the door shut.

Then his brain caught up with him. A guy on fire!? Yelping, he tumbled off the side of the couch, before hoping up and quickly looking around. "Hey, do you mind if I crash here, my sis- HEY!" Having found a fire extinguisher he proceeded to dash over in a blur of speed, rushed through the usage movements and started spraying the guy, saving his life from suffering even more horrific burns.

The flames died away very quickly but the guy was no longer on fire. In fact, he looked a little annoyed now. Unperturbed, Ryu gives him quick once over, frowning a little at something missing. "... You don't have any burns on you? With that amount of heat and the way it was covering you, you should at least have some third degree burns..."

The guy grunts, flicks off some foam and sarcastically comments. "Well duh! You think! It's going to take ages to flame on again!"

Blinking, Ryu adopts a confused expression, which rapidly converts to an incredulous one as his medical instincts brings up what injuries fire causes. "... Wait. You... want to be on fire? Don't you know how dangerous third, second and first degree burns are!?"

The guy looks at him as if he grew another head, before making an O expression, and then a highly annoyed look. "You don't know who I am? Seriously!? I'm the Human Torch! I AM fire! Sheesh. Kids nowadays."

Well, now that the guy mentioned it, he did recognise him from being almost barrelled past earlier. Opening his mouth to say something, or at least take offense at being called a kid, again when the door literally slams open.

And by slam open, he meant the door flew off the hinges and landed across the room. "There you are! Spray mustard all over me don't you! C'mere for a Clobberin'!" And now the giant orange rock guy was in the room, mustard still on his body and positivity glowering at the guy. He takes a menacing stomp into the room, before spotting some foam on the no longer flaming Torch and Ryu with the fire extinguisher. Bellowing out a laugh, he takes another step into the room. "Oh! That's brilliant! Now you can't escape! C'mere you!" He now charges forwards towards Johnny, the guy yelping and trying to avoid the orange guy.

Ryu got caught in the crossfire, tumbling over the table and breaking it form his weight as they chased each other around the room, knocking him over by accident or something along those lines. And then they both slammed into the air as if it was a wall, stumbling back and slightly dazed as some noise comes from the door.

Turning to the doorway, he winces as he spots Susan enter the room, eyes flared in irritation. "Now can SOMEONE explain to me what is going on! We're guests here and you two are tearing up the place!" Glancing down, she spots Ryu still splayed out over the table, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Was that a tic mark on her head or was it him? "Literally! Are you ok Ryu? You're not hurt are you? YOU TWO STAY THERE!" The two, in the process of getting up, bong their heads against the air again and fumble to the ground. She holds her hand out and pulls Ryu up. Oblivious to the Owl's confusion about how exactly those two were hitting their heads on the air. Now stood up, she spots the fire extinguisher on the floor, glances at the bits of foam on her brother's body and gives an enquiring look at the three.

Ryu decides to answer the unspoken question, ignoring the glare Johnny was giving him. "A guy comes barrelling in the room on fire and I didn't know he was meant to be on fire. What was I supposed to do?" She begins laughing.

"Hey! It's not funny sis! It's going to take ages to -ACK!" Johnny was in the middle of complaining when the Orange guy puts him in a head lock.

"Serves you right candlestick! Spray me in mustard why don't cha! Take this!" The Orange guy was now grinning, flashing Ryu a thumbs up before starting to give his captive a noogie.

Susan finally stops laughing, glancing at the doorway where Janet was also chuckling. "Well, Ryu. This is the Fantastic Four. Susan, the Invisible Woman, Johnny the human torch, Ben the Thing and Reed, Mister Fantastic, is downstairs talking to Hank and Tony."

Susan turns to him, grins and shakes his hand. "A pleasure. I apologise for my brother, but he can be such a hot head at... all times. Sometimes literally."

Ryu just shakes his head, returns the handshake and then gives a polite bow. "I'm Ryu, the Horned Owl. Nice to meet you."

Ben stopped his noogie to place two fingers on his forehead and gave the general 'hi' flick most people tend to do.

"Aren't you the guy from that other dimension Reed was talking about? Dimension Travel is so ann, HEY!" Johnny was cut off mid-sentence again by the noogie resuming. Cursing and flailing as he tries to reignite. Ben was taking full advantage of the kid's non-fiery form, giving him the biggest noogie of his life as payback for all the pranks that was played on him.

Susan just let Ben have at it and started for the door. Deciding to follow her instead of with Ben and Johnny, he shrugs and trails after the two girls. She started explaining to the confused Owl about the adventures the four has gone under. At least, that was the plan. Janet decided to add her own story to the mix.

"Hey Susan! Do you want to hear something funny and potentially hugely embarrassing " Janet's innocent sounding question suddenly made his heart drop. He didn't know why, but it did. "A week ago we were shopping with Ryu when..."

It was that story, again. She wouldn't stop recounting it! Speaking up loudly, he disrupts the conversation with a quick question that was more along a shout. "So how did you make them stop running around!?"

Janet shot him a teasing look, tongue sticking out as Susan looks between the two, notes the expression on Janet's face and Ryu's reddening one, before coming to the conclusion that she would want to hear about it later on. Shooting her fellow heroine a glance that probably shouted 'we'll talk about that later', she delves into the shortened version of their trip to space and the cosmic phenomena that created the Fantastic Four.

* * *

_A short, yet lengthy explanation on the Fantastic Four later on_

"-why Victor is now in control of Latva..." The pinging of the lift distracted the group from their conversation. Turning to the group, they were heavily distracted from the explanation Susan was giving them and almost missed everything. But as the lift opened up, Reed Richards, Henry Pym and Tony Stark all come strolling from the lift. In Hank's hands was tablet and Reed was stretching his arm to slide things around on the tablet... _Literally_. His arm was like rubber! It was around Hank's shoulder, over his head and lightly moving around the finger. Now that he knew what their powers were, he wasn't as shocked, but it still caught his attention.

"Reed! Over here! I was just explaining how Victor came to be the leader of Latvaria. Are we almost done? Mole Man is still in his cell and needs to be brought to the prison dimension of yours." Bursting out several questions, Susan managed to nab Reed in mid-conversation.

Now that he was effectively distracted, Tony and Hank glance at the group. Upon spotting Ryu, Tony gives off a huge smirk, saunters up to the group and casually remarks. "Who is the most awesome guy in the world! And please, don't all go shouting it out at once." Holding out his hands in a 'whoa' motion, he keeps his smirk up.

Confused, the three almost tilts their head at an angle and adopt the same, confused expression. Seeing no one was mentioning anything, he just grins, pulls out Ryu's bracelet and holds it in front of him. Eyes brightening up, Ryu quickly takes the Bracelet and slips it back on, before looking over Tony for a moment. "Thanks... Umm... Where is everything else?"

His grin getting even bigger, he crosses his arms, steps back and puts on some shades. "Go on. Try changing."

Now confused, he blinks and deadpans. "You _know_ I need my uniform on before transmuting."

He misses Janet and Susan's expressions changing from confusion to all-knowing.

"Go on!" Janet exclaims, poking his arm.

"Try it!" Susan nudges his other arm.

Highly sceptical, he glances around in confusion, before blinking. Snapping his gaze on Tony, he hesitantly mutters. "You... didn't..." Seeing the inventor's wider grin, Ryu feels the corner of his mouth twitch up, before bringing his arm around in the usual motion, calling out the transformation trigger. "Bird! Go!" Any doubts he had was wiped away when he felt his clothing disappear replaced with his Bridestyle. Moments later, he was now in costume, looking over it with the biggest grin on his face. "How..."

"Well, it was using a certain wavelength to switch your clothing with that, thing. So I theorized with Hank that if we included certain modulations and altered the wavelength slightly, we could have it accept any clothing you are currently wearing to change instead of a specific set of clothing that resonated on those wavelengths. And I have to say, the results were perfect. I told you that you don't need to carry the n trigger for it to work! You gotta trust my sims Hank!" The last two sentences were commented to Hank, who just crossed his arms and frowned.

"I still say we should of. It would have allowed the effects to work at a faster rate than the current one."

"It doesn't need to! I keep telling you, the timings of it are already stable, making it change its speed could do something bad!"

"Your sims didn't even say this would be a complete success! There was a 49% chance it would have failed!"

"That's less than half, which is good enough for a non-critical thing right?"

This back and forth between the two was virtually ignored by Ryu, who was eagerly jumping around and gliding with all the grace of an Owl. He didn't have to wear his civvies any more. Although he probably will put them on every now and then, they weren't the key to the transformation now. He freezes in mid-air, flipping around and landing on the wall. Pressing his arms to the edge, he flips off and lands near the group. "... What happens if someone else tried to use it?"

Disturbing the argument, Tony glances at him and gives him an expression that clearly asked if he was a moron. "You, do know it was already designed to respond to your specific outfit, so I had it DNA encoded to work for just you."

Well, that made everything better. Beaming, he transmuted out, blinding everyone and dashing over to Janet. Once she recovered, she had his bracelet held in-front of her. "Want to test that?"

Giving a chuckle, she slips it on and tries repeating his performance, complete with activation trigger. Seeing that it didn't work, she unclasped it and returns it to its owner, who was shaking from excitement. Once he had it strapped on, he spins around and envelops Tony in a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you thank you thank you! ... Still want those clothes back though." Putting him down, he grins at the expression he was giving.

Tony shakes his head, eyes closed and speaking matter-of-factly, one finger held up as if he was giving a lecture. "They're downstairs, if you *really* want them. Don't see why, they're horribly out of date. You'll probably have a better chance to just burn them or something."

Tony misses the cringe from Ryu, who nonetheless shifts past him and heads down into the labs to retrieve his clothes. Ryu did miss Janet hissing something at Tony and his thunk on the head as if forgetting something. His clothes were easy enough to locate. JARVIS was happy to point him in the right directions and they were pretty much on the side of the table, still folded up. As he picks them up, he looks at the 5 on the chest, before his eyes go misty. Quickly rubbing his eyes, he shifts them under his arm and heads directly to his room, avoiding the others since he just wanted to be alone.

* * *

Now in the comfort of his room, he carefully sets the uniform down and looks at it. Giving a sigh, he picks it back up and puts on the nearby drawer. Now safely tucked away, he spots the notebook on the desk and decides to spend some time sketching out something. Opening to the last page he was on, he spots the sketch he was doing of the team. Seeing Joe was half done, he starts from there.

He loses himself in the monotony of drawing when the pencil runs over a wet spot on the page. Pausing, he wonders why there was water on the book. The times he's brought it out it was dry. He spots a second spot appear and he idly realises that they were tears. Blinking, he rubs his eyes, wondering why exactly he was like this. Then he looks at his almost finished picture of the team.

Ken stood in the centre in a regal pose, boomerang in hand. Joe and Jun was flanking him, Jun had her yo-yo in hand and Joe had a clump of feather Shuriken's in his. Jinpei and himself was next to Jun, holding his bolas up with that cheeky grin he always had on and his own half-finished picture was just grinning with hands on his waist. Sniffing, he hugs the pad close to himself.

Now that he's drawn the others and could look at their rough images, he realises just how much he was missing them. His head echoed how much he was losing everything from home. The God Phoenix was gone, his feathers Shuriken's were virtually gone and his Uniform was now not needed. All that he had left now was a small handful of Shuriken's, his cable gun and his Bracelet. And with Tony wanting to upgrade his feather Shuriken's, he'll soon lose the original ones. He was slowly losing everything to do with home and that thought made his mind in a state of despair.

He pauses for a moment, before reaching into his shirt and pulling out his good luck charm. He didn't even have a picture of his family that he could have saved, just this good luck charm. His mind echoes with the reasoning. If Galactor ever got on board and saw that picture, then they would be in trouble. Settling himself back down, he wipes his face and moves to the next page. From there, he starts sketching out a picture of his father and brother.

Several minutes into his sketch, there was a hesitant knock on the door. Pausing, he looks up, then glances at the door. A moment later there was another knock, which causes him to sigh, rub his eyes and shuffle off his bed. Leaving the notebook open, he approaches the door and peeks out.

Seeing Janet, she gives a small smile at him. "Mind if I come in?" Mumbling a sure, he opens the door fully, having figured out that she knew what was wrong. Approaching the bed, he settles himself back on as she nervously looks around. "Listen, I know Tony is a lit, big jerk at times, but he does feel bad about what he said. I think he forgot that the uniform is one of the few things you have left from your world."

Sighing, he sets the sketch down. "It's not just that... I'm... losing everything to do with home. It's nice that he upgraded my bracelet and these future upgrades to my Shuriken's are actually quite exciting... But I have virtually nothing left that hasn't changed... There is my uniform. And my Birdstyle. There is also my good luck charm, but everything else has been altered to suit this place. It only just hit home then that I may soon only have memories left when I go back." He sighs again, before chuckling. "Heh, once I do go back they're going to think I'm an imposter or something."

She gives a nervous glance around, not sure what to expect. So she approaches the bed and peeks at his drawings instead. She sees the upper torsos of his father and brother and can't help but comment. "Is that your father than brother?"

Seeing him give a smile, he nods his head. "Yeah. I figured, I may as well draw a picture of them. I wasn't allowed to keep a picture on me when on missions so this is the best I have apart from my memories. It helps, y'know..."

"The picture is really well done. I didn't know you were an artist..." She gives a grin, moving to the first page.

He gives a shrug and a chuckle. "I didn't even know how good I was. Maybe all this trauma knocked my creativity lose or something like that?"

She tilts her head and squints. "Wait, I think I recognise this thing..."

Ryu gives a grin. "That's the God Phoenix. If you saw any images of her before I... blew her up... Then she would look a little familiar. I pretty much have the blueprints memorised when I was shown it and I did have a lot of say in her design. Sure, she is kind of a giant brick but with the kick of the trustees, she swoops and soars like any bird." His voice trails off when he remembers blowing it up. He manages to shake off the negative thoughts before they could take root though and resumes his explanatory presence. It rapidly evolves to one that she sees often. Mainly on people who love someone or something else, like Jane Foster was to Thor.

She grins at the almost dreamy expression on his face. Moving to the next page. She blinks at what she sees. "... Wow... Seriously. You remembered the blueprints exactly?"

Giving a chuckle and rubbing the back of his head, he comments back. "Yeah. Like I said. She was mine. So I got a huge say in what goes where. So I figured, may as well remember the whole thing, just encase we need to do emergency repairs or something like that." She gives an appreciative whistle, flipping to the next page. She blinks and frowns. He interrupts her thoughts. "The God Phoenix is a gestalt. Four machines dock in the Phoenix which allows me to use her full potential. So what you're seeing there is the first one. The G1, Ken's Cessna jet."

Having peaked over her shoulder to confirm it was the G1 jet, he begins describing and listing everything he could remember about the G1. "We did eventually get extra armaments on our G-machines. As you can see, Ken gets some lasers to shoot out. Doctor Nambu really didn't want us to have individual weaponry on those machines since our mission is to find out stuff rather than fight... But it just so happens we do the fighting anyway."

She flips to the next few pages, giggling a little at the Jinpei's Buggy but was inwardly impressed at its versatility. After moving to the next page, she blinks when she sees a rough sketch of the Quinjet. Confused, she looks at Ryu, who turns the page for her. She blinks at the new design he had of the God Phoenix. "Oh! So you're thinking of upgrading the Phoenix with things you've seen from the QuinJet. Nice! Heh, force fields, laser blasters, missile armaments Oh!" She flips to the second page again, then back. "You're keeping the missile thingies."

Ryu chuckles. "They're called super bird missiles. Kind of like mini-nukes, but without the radiation and it can be altered on the fly to be more or less powerful or to hold someone so they can infiltrate from within." Giving a grin, she turns the page and stares at the drawing on this page, her face going blank. "And that's the team. See, that's Ken. He's the leader of the team and was labelled as Gatchaman. Joe is second in command and Jun is one of the smartest people I know, so they're flanking him. That's Jinpei and me next to them. I, kind of decided to draw my family rather than finish myself. I mean, it's not like I'm going to forget what I look like right?" He gives a grin, before it falls upon noticing her expression. "What's... wrong?"

She looks up, a hard stare now on her face as she points at Jinpei. "How old is he?" He pales, suddenly remembering why he didn't mention specific ages for the group. The Avenger's had enough trouble accepting that he was in the military at 17. He still wasn't sure how they would react to having been training for this for the past few years as well as the 10 year old in the team. "He looks like a kid still!"

That caught his attention. Jinpei always hated being labelled incompetent because of his age. The team has been growing to accept that and he does do some brash things which shows that he was still young, but the group believes in him and that he can carry out his tasks with a certain level of competence. Frowning, he decides to defend his team-mate "Jinpei is a valued member of the team. Don't let his age fool you, he's just as well trained as the rest of us."

She glares at him. "What about his childhood!?"

Ryu's gaze softens at that. "I'm actually the only one who had anything resembling a childhood, and even that was cut short by Galactor as well as being the eldest son to the leading fisherman back in my village. They're all Orphans, whether it's for as long as they can remember or their father disappearing reappearing. Jun is actually Jinpei's legal guardian, well, her and Doctor Nambu. Nambu himself took them all in, he helped make us a family and a team. They refused to be separated and he really didn't want to be left out when everyone was training. So Jun snuck lessons in and he eventually got allowed onto the rooster when he proved his skills. Kid's a fast learner, that's for sure."

Her gaze was still furious at a child being on the front lines of the missions, especially since she was remembering parts of the story the Avenger's overheard the night before when Steve was comforting him. His face then cracks into a grin. "They even own a joint business. He always has a joke ready and... Well..."

He shifts a little, wondering if he should say what his thoughts was on. Sighing, he decides to just go for it. "Sometimes, I think his presence helps keep the others sane..." Here, she gives a confused look at him. "I mean, sure, Joe curses loads and Ken still makes mistakes... But he gives us hope. Why we're fighting to begin with. He's the innocence we want to protect and it helps us keeps us from crossing that line. I'm, not sure if you've seen it, but it's there. That line that separates us from being monsters."

Her gaze softens at that, knowing full well the line some heroes teeter on that keeps them from becoming bad. "Joe comes close to that line so often because he's so haunted by whatever Galactor did to him, but it's usually Jinpei who brings him back. Well, that or Ken punching him. And when we're all depressed or a mission goes horribly, he always tries lightening the mood. He helps keep us strong and I'm sure without him, we would have lost a long time ago..." He gives a glance at Janet, eyes adopting a teasing look. "But don't tell the kid that. His head's already swollen up enough that he's almost up to Tony's level. Any more and I don't think the Phoenix could lift him." He gives a hesitant laugh but she was now understanding of the situation. She didn't approve. Children fighting on the front lines were something she abhorred, but she understood the reasoning.

Still, she joins in the chuckle. "But aren't all boys like that?"

Ryu gives her a slightly insulted look. "I'll have you know I was nothing like that when I was a kid. Was too busy helping pa fish or wrestling back home... Well, ok, maybe I was a little. But that kid could probably give Tony a run for his ego. Sure, he's not as smart as him but I'm not sure anyone is smarter than Tony. Still, Jinpei is a smart kid, a fast thinker and great at coming up with plans on the go. You have to be if you want to be part of the team." It looked like she was starting to understand, since her glare was no longer on its ice cold setting. Still... "I do understand where you're coming from though... The original rooster didn't even have me and Jinpei on it y'know."

She looked mildly surprised at that.

"It was just supposed to be Ken, Joe and Jun. But Ken brought up the problem that he couldn't focus on piloting the Phoenix AND give out his orders and commands without compromising the pair. Joe and Jun, they can't fly anything, I mean, Joe tried once. I think you'll have a better chance getting Hulk to pilot a QuniJet competently than Joe flying well. So Nambu searched for another pilot. Heh, he actually remembered me from several years ago when he came to my village to do some research. Managed to save him with my boating skills when a whirlpool formed nearby. You don't spend most of your life as a fisherman without learning some things." He gave a proud grin, rubbing under his nose with a finger and literally beaming with pride. "So he sponsored me into high school nearby and did some piloting tests. Heh, said even Ken didn't score as high as I did on the practical tests and he almost aced them."

She gives a grin and shoves him slightly. "Stay on topic Owl. And drop that smug look."

He chuckles. "I can't help it. It was the only thing I managed to beat Ken on and it took him 3 more attempts to reach my level. Perfect Ken was beaten in piloting school by some country bump-kin, his pride couldn't take it. Heh. But yeah, I was eventually put on the rooster and began training with sensei. Since I was training to be a Sumo back home, they made full use of my strength instead of agility like everyone else."

She tilts her head and grins. "Sumo? Oddly enough, I can actually picture you doing that."

He blushes. "Well, yeah. Back home it was a big thing and I had the perfect build for it. It was an honour to be chosen to join a stable and it brings a lot of respect and fame too. Anyone would have loved to of been picked to join a stable back home and I was essentially a shoe in. If I wasn't chosen to be the Phoenix's pilot I would have been a rising Sumo star instead. At school, no one could beat me. I was stronger than everyone else AND more agile than them to begin with. No one knew how or why, I just was." His tone was one of utter fact, showing that he wasn't kidding. "So yeah. That's the team and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. We've been through so much together. Heh, we don't even need to talk for the others to respond most of the time now anyway. A shift in position, a glance or even a quick nod conveys more than words can do."

She blinks at that boast. "How... does that work?"

Ryu shrugs. "We've worked with each other for so long, that we notice minute changes in battle pretty quickly. Ken still calls out his orders, if only to explain more complex things, but simple orders like, 'follow him', 'take out the group over there', 'I'll swing with my left, go under my arm and kick out' and the like can be done without conveying words."

She gives a whistle at that. "That, is quite impressive. We know what our abilities so we can fight with and without one another, but that kind of wordless orders would take years of... years..." She stares at him, before adopting a pained expression. "You said you were in military duty for the past year... But you never actually told us how long you've been training for that... did you?"

Her expression becomes sadder when he flinches and looks away. "... If it helps... I was picked to try out for the team when I was 14... Jinpei's official training was the shortest with just under a year, but that wasn't counting the training Jun, Joe and Ken gave him while they were his wards..."

He feels a hand rest on his shoulder before he is pulled into a hug. Blinking in confusion, she clutches tightly. "So young... All of you are so young... How much older is Ken and Joe? How old is Jun? Please don't dance around the issue. Just tell me straight..."

He winces again, remembering how he gave general ideas of ages and played it off as being affronted by their reactions to his age. He sighs, finally deciding that the truth was needed here. "Jinpei is 11, Jun is 16, a year younger than me while Joe and Ken are both 18, older than me. I wasn't lying when I said I was the middle aged guy in the group. Two older and two younger members of the team. Our ages are one of our greatest assets. Galactor used to underestimate us because of that. To an extent, they still do. I mean, 5 'kids' as you call us taking down an evil organisation? How many blows to your pride do you think it'll take before you start taking them seriously?"

She let's go and picks up the discarded sketchbook. "You do know, everyone is going to throw a fit when they see these pictures right?"

He sighs. "I know... But... I just wanted a picture of them. So much has happened, I wanted something else to remind me of them. I mean, I have my bracelet and my good luck charm." He briefly touches the charm around his neck. "But having my uniform become suddenly useless just emphasised everything I was losing." He shakes his head for a moment. "How long do you think it'll take before this Bracelet becomes useless? Or for me to lose this? I... I just want to"

"My apologies for interrupting sir, but Mr Stark have asked me to remind you both that they were leaving in 5 minutes." He also wanted me to remind Ms Van Dyke that she was meant to ask you if you wanted to come with them to the Baxter building since she hasn't yet told me whether your accepting or not."

Ryu blinks in confusion when JARVIS speaks up, glancing at Janet who blushed and fidgeted slightly. "Erm, we're going to be taking Mole man to the Baxter building. Would you like to come along and see how the Fantastic Four hang out? Heh heh."

Ryu grins. "Distractions right. Fine. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

She sticks her tongue out and shrinks into her smaller form. "Never say that here Ryu! We're the Avengers, stuff ALWAYS happens to us."

As she flies off, he gives a grin, commenting in the quietness that came after she left. "Good point." He looks at his bracelet then to his uniform folded up on the side. "Now I'm getting an ominous feeling. Way to go Ryu. You so jinxed everyone..."

Giving a sigh, he brings his arms up in their usual movement.

"BIRD! GO!" At least some things remain the same...

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Ryu gained enough experience from this fight to level up!_

_Ryu reached level 2! He gained transformation bracelet level 2! __Transformation bracelet _learnt "Transmute without uniform!" Ryu also gains Creative Licence and Ominous feelings! 

_Sorry, had to do that. Played too many 'level up' based games. _

_Janet now knows about the team's ages. How will that cause reactions through the team. Will she tell them or will she keep his secret for the moment? Will Ryu show Tony the plans he has for the Phoenix? What will happen in the Baxter building? Will anything even happen?_

_..._

_..._

_Yeah. Of course something will happen. Stuff ALWAYS happens to the Avengers. Especially if it's a focus for something._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	9. Fantastic Mr Owl

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

* * *

Ryu boarded the Quinjet with Tony, Hank and Janet. As the hatch closes, Ryu looks around. "Where is everyone else?"

Tony waves him off as he starts the flying procedures. "Someone needs to stay behind. Just encase. Me and Hank are going because Reed wants to show us something, Janet's going because she and Susan are up to something and you? Well, you haven't met them yet, so may as well bring you along."

Janet gives Tony a glare, but with his helmet on she couldn't really hit him without hurting her hand. "Watch yourself Tony... We can easily include you in our 'something' you know." She stuck her tongue out, which was a little immature but he still found it absolutely hilarious.

Ryu gives a nod though. "AL righty then. So, we're off to this, Baxter Building then?"

Janet answers that question. "Yup! Home to the Fantastic Four."

Tony glances back and grins from inside his helmet. "By the way guys..."

They both look at him and in perfect unison... "What?"

He smirks, although they couldn't see from behind his helmet, the way he said next clued them in. "Strap yourselves in!" The Quinjet suddenly lurches forwards, throwing them both back from the sudden acceleration. Cackling, he quietly tells JARVIS to save their expressions for future use. Since they weren't expecting to go just yet, the sudden jerking of movement shocked them both and their expressions mirrored it with a healthy dose of panic. They then went from shock to furious but with a quick jerk of the joystick, they were now airborne.

Janet's tone was furious. "Tony, if you EVER do that again I am going to zap you so hard you won't be able to walk for a week!"

Ryu was a bit blunter, speaking calmly. "... I will get my vengeance... Just you wait..."

Tony holds both hands out and makes pushing motions. "Ok, ok. It was just a joke. No need to threaten me. Geez. Look, there they are." Ah, distractions. So very distracting...

Looking out the window he was gesturing at, they saw another flying ship. This one was bigger and looked like it had four compartments. In the front was Reed Richards, behind him was Susan and in the wings was Johnny and Ben. Ben and Johnny both give brief two finger salutes, Susan gave a wave which Janet returned and Reed, possibly nodded his head. They then got into an escort formation and headed to the Baxter building. It wasn't too far away, but it was better to take the Moleman with them than on the ground. At least this way they can see an attack coming without any civilians getting in the way.

Speaking of which. "Where is Mole man?"

Janet grins and gestures in the back. "Back there, in cuffs and gagged. Tony got fed up with his whining and it was the most agreeable solution."

Ryu gives a shrug as the large structure comes into sight. Blinking, he whistles at it. They land on the roof along with the Fantastic Fours ship, disembarking with the Moleman between Hank and Tony. Ryu comes out last, looking around with an eager glint.

Reed and Ben both approach Hank and Tony, chatting away whilst 'escorting' the Mole man in. Well, those four were taking him in which left Him, Janet, Susan and Johnny outside. Johnny looks at him and scowls, only to get a hit to the head from his sister and a cool "Behave" to him. She then approached Janet and they started chatting, leaving him up there alone with the human torch.

Once his sister was out of sight, he gives a smirk, which made him a bit worried. "Well, I've been told to give you the tour, so let's go! That way!" He points at the doorway, lights a fireball and throws it at him. Yelping, he bends back to avoid it, backflips back onto his feet and runs at the door with a cackling pyromaniac chasing after him.

"What does fire have to do with a tour!?" He hops up to avoid another one, bouncing off the wall to keep his momentum up.

"Everything! Heads up! Low roof!" He was in middle of jumping at that late warning. Eeping, he leans back, presses his arm to the roof and pushes down. Deciding to risk it, he twists so he lands on all fours, before pushing up and to the side, throwing himself off the edge of the railing and down the central hole.

He spots Johnny wave at him by his side. "By the way, we're about to pass our floor. See ya!" Stopping in mid-flight, he gives a wave at Ryu who tries to process this, before twisting and snapping out his wings.

Gliding back to the stairs, he curses and looks up. Johnny was now gone, and he really didn't know which floor they were on. "... I think he's still a little ticked off at me..." Making his way up, he looks at each corridor from the staircase, trying to find a clue about which one he was meant to be on. It was several floors up before he gives up. "Fine, if you want to play it that way... I can do that. Tour my ass!"

Getting his cable gun out, he aims up and fires, bypassing large amounts of stairs as a shortcut. Reappearing on the roof, he looks around, grins and closes the door. Whistling innocently, he jumps onto the Fantastic Four's ship and peers inside each compartment.

Losing track of time by checking the entire thing, he was sitting in Johnny's seat, tapping the edge of a one of the two arm sized holes in his compartment when a beeping comes from his Avenger's ID card.

Blinking, he holds it up, a picture of Janet's face appearing on it. "Ryu! Where are you?"

He can catch yelling in the background and grimaces. "Whhyy?"

She frowns. "Because we found Johnny sitting on the couch and can't find you. Susan's ripping into him about losing you and, I think he just left."

Ryu grins. "I'm in his seat on their plane." Pondering for a moment, he gives a grin. "After his tour of fireballs and free-falling down the staircase, he kind of left me to find the floor out myself, so I decided to instead head on up and check out their ride. And boy is it something! I take it that with his flaming abilities, he can help the entire thing accelerate faster? I mean, that's an educated guess, what with fist sized holes in his compartment and no-one else's." She gives a sigh, before relaying it to Susan. "Hey, can you tell her that I'm actually like, on a random floor or something? I'm kinda comfy up here."

He catches her gaze and adopts an innocent expression. She sighs and speaks off screen for a moment, before hearing a giggle and then Susan's voice calling out to someone called HERBIE. "Ok, she's game for now, only because it'll teach him to be more respectful and polite. But come on down in a bit. We're, what..." She listens to Susan say something before nodding her head. "Come down about 11 floors."

Giving a broad grin, he gives a brief fist-pump. "Awesome!" Catching her look, he blushes. "What? You know I love ships like these." She shakes her head before the transmission cuts off. Shrugging, he slips out of the ship and let's it close again. Opening the stairway, he looks down, catching a brief glow way far down before it enters a floor. Vaulting over the railings, he mentally counts 10 floors before his wings snap out again. Landing, he peeks into the corridor and looks around.

"They're down the hall and to the left Mr Owl." Yelping, he quickly looks around, before frowning, where the voice came from. "Oh! Sorry! I'm HERBIE, the Ai that runs this place."

Ryu blinks then grins. "Like JARVIS. Neat! Thanks HERBIE!" As he runs down the corridor, he catches the voice say, your welcome. Opening the door, he looks at the two girls and gives a wave. Entering, he makes an ooh sound at the room. It was quite nice, he'll admit. He was already looking over things like a child.

"I'm sorry about my brother, but he's such a hot head sometimes. Although seeing him panic like that was kind of amusing." She pauses for a moment, before resting a hand on her hip. "Why exactly did he leave you though?"

Chuckling, he rubs the back of his helmet. "Heh, I think he's still annoyed from the fire extinguisher earlier."

She makes an ah sound. HERBIE then piques in. "Don't worry! I won't tell Johnny! It's actually quite funny how worried he looks. Here! Take a look!" Nearby a video screen pops up, and Johnny, on fire, was zipping around, looking at each floor. It looked like he was saying something as well but the video didn't have sound yet. The entire group starts laughing. "What did you say to him to cause this Susan?"

She gives a smirk. Evidently she knew how to get her brother to do things. "Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Maybe telling him that his car may mysteriously fall to pieces if he doesn't bring you back up here ASAP. The usual."

Wow... He had a car? Wonder what it looked like. The door slides open and the others come in. They spot the video screen before any of them could hide it. Tony and Ben bursts into laughter whilst Reed and Hank sigh. "Ok, what's going on?"

Susan moves to Reed and entwines her hand around his, which Janet mimes with Hank. "Oh, nothing much. Just Johnny being his usual self."

Tony rests his hands on his knees, getting his laughter under control. "Ok, Really? I wanna know!"

Ryu gives a shrug. "He's giving me a tour. What's there to know?" He gives a shrug, eyes twinkling with amusement as his grin broadens.

Tony just gives him a look, before bursting into laughter. Reed slaps his face, now guessing what happened. "Let me guess... He left you on your own?"

Ryu gives a helpless shrug, looking away and rubbing the back of his head. "... Maybe... Maybe he just wanted to throw some fireballs? Or fly around a bit? Or... Ok. Your right. His fireballs aren't the best things at giving tours so instead of wasting time searching I just went back to the roof. He thinks I'm somewhere way down there or something. I dunno."

HERBIE's voice comes up, almost timidly commenting. "Should... I tell him we're all up here?"

Reed just pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. "Yes HERBIE. Tell him to come back up here..."

The picture quickly disappears and Susan sighs as well. "Well that was fun while it lasted. Not often we get to prank Johnny."

Ryu glances around, before whistling to himself and shifting himself to be out of sight of the door, but reed just looks at him and he sheepishly returns to his position, just as the door bursts open. His gaze sweeps the room before locking onto Ryu and his, still innocently whistling position. "You! You were here the ENTIRE time! I searched 15 floors for you!"

Ryu gives a shrug. "Sorry? But I didn't really feel like searching for the right floor. Really, it should have been obvious where I was. I mean, I've been on the roof and free-falling down the stair case. But that's really it."

Susan suddenly snaps her head towards him. "Free-falling down the staircase!?"

Johnny suddenly looked panicked. "He jumped over the railings!"

Ryu smirks, wondering if this is what it felt like to Joe when messing around with Ken. "Well after the first few dozen fireballs I figured it was a better way to move than running down stairs! That's dangerous y'know!"

"The fireballs weren't even that strong!"

"I wasn't talking about the fireballs."

"You're a ninja right! You can run down stairs!"

"Whilst avoiding fireballs as well? I'm good but not that good!"

"You managed to spray me before I could do anything! You're fast enough!"

"Hey! I panicked alright! Besides, you almost knocked me over trying to get away from that guy! Twice might I add! And you succeeded the second time anyway!"

"You shouldn't have gotten in the way then!"

"You made me fall on a table! I probably have splinters or something for all you know!"

"Heh-hem!" They both pause and look at Reed, who looked quite annoyed whilst Tony and Janet were in hysterics. Hank had his face in his palm and Susan was looking down, expression unreadable. Why did he suddenly fear for his life... again... About to say something, Reed was completely cut off by Susan now boiling over.

What happened for the next few minutes would cause even Doom to pause in hesitance. Simply because Susan was LOUD! Johnny was cowering for good reason, simply because he was the focus of it all. By the time her rant had stopped and was breathing heavily, everyone else had in that time, taken several steps away from the pair and was staring in shock. If this was a cartoon, everyone's eyes would have been comically wide, but as this was the real world, they just settled for staring in shock. She then turned to the others and in a tone that was like she didn't just spend the previous few minutes screaming out something about guests and manners, casually asked. "So what were we talking about?"

Ever the scientist Reed managed to steer the conversation away. Well, it still took a few moments of goldfish speech to gather the nerve but he managed to remember well enough. "Anyway, Tony has a sample and recording of the gases Mole man used earlier, as well as managing to provide some data on the shielding tech that was used in that drill... My suspicions were correct. It was Doom..."

Johnny, quick to recover, throws up his arms, groaning loudly. "Why Doom! It's always Doom! Doom doom doom! Why can't it be sun and babes or something like that!"

Tony and Ben double over in laughter while Ryu quickly bites his fist to not join them. Janet and Susan, thwacked him over the head, eliciting a sharp "OW!" from the guy.

Reed shakes his head. "Enough of that Johnny. We may not have proof it is him, but the technology used is defiantly something I've seen Doom use before. It may not be enough to go to Latvaria to question him, but it does help us to be ready... Although why he would get the Moleman to strike near the Avengers, I'll have no idea..."

Ryu, now calmed down, catches Janet's eye with a questioning look. She shuffles closer to him and whispers. "Doctor Doom is one of these guys' bad guys. He's a genius, kinda like Tony has his own country, which prevents us from arresting him because he has diplomatic immunity and stuff."

Ryu frowns, but nods his head in agreement. He remembered Inderia where the team had to get approval from their government to enter their land. "I see. And you can't really request an audience since that'll give him time to create a cover-up and alibis which will try to make us seem like morons..." She nods her head, a questioning look on her own face. He gives a grin back. "It's not just this world that requires a legal mess to do its job. Even with Galactor ruining the world, some governments are too proud to request our help."

She makes an ah sound as the group starts discussing their plans. Ryu, not entirely well versed in the diplomatic finesse that they probably want, takes the time to look over the room. After looking at a vase with flowers in it for the past few minutes, he feels something being pressed into his hand. Glancing to the side, he sees Reed handing him a tablet, continuing to chat away. Grinning, he takes a look at it and blinks. So this was Doctor Doom... He looks over his clothing, approving the colour scheme despite him being a bad guy. He does note he was in metal armour of some kind and the stats did say it had a various selection of weaponry and abilities. So it was similar to Tony in that manner. Here, he gives a brief wince. So, this guy fights in a human sized mecha as well... Great...

He looks up at the others, apparently deep into talking. He looks back down and sighs. Maybe those feather shuriken Tony mentioned he would make could have a way to short out mecha's? In which case, they would be the best thing ever. A yellow foot appearing in his peripheral vision causes him to blink, then look up at Janet. "We're heading back. We're going to be in touch so they'll let us know if something happens."

Ryu nods his head and catches Tony and Hank heading to the hallway. He turns and follows, handing the table back to Reed and calls out a brief thanks.

* * *

Half an hour later, the Avenger's was back in the mansion and casually chatting on the way up the lift. Ryu decides now was a good time to put forth some questions. "So, this Doom guy. On a scale, how dangerous is he?"

They spend a few moments going over that question. The lift pings and opens as Tony finally puts a number forward. "I'll say, 8 or 9. His suit is highly advanced and he has an entire country military might behind him. As well as that, he's smart. All of these things together "

Ryu nods and adopts a thoughtful expression. Clint appears suddenly. "So, what's up? Did you deliver the guy or what?"

Janet nods as Hank and Tony gently pushes the two out of the lift so they could go back down to their labs. Shrugging, Ryu steps out with Janet as the door closes and the lift goes back down. Janet replies to him as they leave the lift. "Yup. Although we also found out the Doom is behind it. At least, we believe so. We don't have any hard proof yet but Doom isn't exactly easy to take down, is he?"

Clint sighs and nods in agreement. "Damn diplomatic Immunity..." Grumbling, the purple clad archer trudges away, leaving the pair alone for a moment.

"Well, dunno about you but I've got a date with Carol later on! See ya Ryu!" Janet gives a wave, shrinks and then flies away.

This left the Owl on his own, before sighing. "I'm going to be studying aren't I? Urgh..." He turns to the lift and waits patiently for it to return. Pausing, he looks down at his bracelet and idly remembers Tony tweaked it. Brining the usual motions to action, he transmutes back to his civvies. He tugs at the material, impressed with how quickly Tony managed to work on this. As the door opens, he gives a brief nod to Steve who walks by. Stepping inside the metal box, he is taken down to the war room, where he approaches the central unit and looks up. "So, JARVIS, can you bring up the info we have on Doctor Doom please?"

"Of course sir." Ever the dutiful AI, JARVIS brings the required information up.

"Thanks JARVIS." Giving a grin, he sits himself down and starts reading.

* * *

Half an hour later and Ryu was quite far into his studying. This Doom guy was Impressive. Maintaining a country that was poor and improving it to a liveable degree probably helped account for the population's dedication. On top of that, he maintains a, somewhat strong diplomatic presence whilst keeping it all afloat, he was actually wondering if it was possible to sneak Doom over to his own world. For a moment at least. Then he realises that that was MUCH too dangerous to do.

Sitting back and looking at his history, the door slides open. Tony comes strutting in, spins the chair he was in (he wasn't sure if he should be annoyed, amused or glad) and casually leans against the next chair. "So, who is the most awesome guy in the world?"

Ryu blinks and looks up at the older man. "... Do you have to ask?" Score! He totally made it sound like both a compliment and a complaint!

"Your right, there isn't really a need to ask. So here, Ta-dah!" He unhooks something from behind his belt and holds up a metallic box. "Go on, transform!" Blinking, he looks over the box before reaching out, but Tony pulls it back. "C'mon, I said transform!". Grunting something unintelligible he does so.

Once done, Tony puts the box by his side and plucks his helmet from his head. Blinking in confusion, he watches him as he places something to the inside of the visor, taps it a few times and then puts it on his own head. Some kind of screen pops up on the visor, which causes him to nod, pick up the box and open up the side of it and begins fiddling with some of the buttons. The Screen moves around a bit, eliciting some noises of approval, disapproval and other random noises. Finally done, he closes the box, takes the helmet off and hands it to him.

Confused, he was about to say something when Tony puts one finger to his lips and grins. Sighing, he takes the helmet and puts it back on. Once on, the screen reappears, just within his peripheral vision, looking at the screen, he wonders why it lists normal with 30 next to it. Tony grins, lifts the box and shows him both the opening on the bottom and a slider wheel. He then slides it down. The list that says normal moves down to show explosive and the number 15, causing him to blink again. It then continues to list other things, such as KO gas, tranq and other functions, all of which was listed at 15. The list scrolls back to normal and Tony then presses a button on the side. Ryu was starting to get a very good idea of what this was. From the opening on the bottom, a white metal stick comes out which he proceeds to hold up as the number next to normal became 29. The vane then grew out from the small holes on it and after a few moments, he was then holding onto what looked like his feather Shuriken's.

Giving a grin that was oh so wide, he throws his arms wide and grabs Tony in one big bear hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best!" Letting go a moment later so the guy could breathe, he plucks the box from his hand and clips it to the back of his belt. Pressing the button again, he takes the stick out and launches his arm out, throwing it at the wall. He grins as the vane finished expanding the moment he was letting go. Sure, these will be a lot slower and he'll throw a lot less, but now he had some versatility. Watching it thunk onto the wall, he does note that the counter went down to 28. "I take it the tranq and KO gas have a limited duration?"

Tony gives a brief wave. "I couldn't put missiles on it, but those things are easy enough. You also have a limited amount of stalks though. You can 'reload' using a special canister I've left downstairs. And yes, the tranq last for a good hour or so while the gas lasts for a good few minutes. They're impact based, so they'll stay safe until they hit something. Even on something soft, the small canister will get pierced by the stalk which..." Sliding the slider down, he highlights the KO gas and clicks the button. The counter for this went down to 14 and he slides the slider back up to Normal. The number now had 27. Well, this is going to be fun.

He glances at Tony who was still in the process of talking aimlessly. He's now gone form how the small canisters are pierced by the stalk and how it's powered by his transformation wave lengths and how awesome he was figuring all this out. Remembering something from earlier, he grins and lightly throws the shuriken at the distracted inventor. It hit his chest, bounced off and released a brief bout of green gas. Tony yelps, swoons and then collapses onto the sofa. Grinning, Ryu approaches as the gas rapidly disperses. "Well, it's fast acting. That's for sure. You awake Tony?"

A nudge with his foot emits a groan. Grinning, he grabs a pad of paper and a pen, tears a page out and writes a brief thank you note. Once done, he sets it on his chest, before proceeding to draw on his face. Once he had the swirly moustache done perfectly with drawn on glasses, he grins, puts the cap back on the pen and looks up. "Can you not tell him about the drawings on his face until someone mentions it please Mr JARVIS?"

"I'm afraid I cannot lie to Mr Stark, Mr Nakanishi." Ryu pouts a bit at that. "However, I can refrain from mentioning anything until he directly asks me if that helps."

Ryu grins at that, pumping one fist up. "Awesome!" Thanks JARVIS! I'll be, um, around. See ya!" Giving a huge grin, he rushes out of the room and heads down the stairs, grinning like a lunatic and doing all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres. As he reaches the step, he jumps onto the railing and flips forwards, twirling in the air and landing on the ground.

"... 8.5. You parted your legs a bit too early landing there y'know" Blinking in confusion, he looks back at Clint, who was grinning.

He grins right back at him, points and exclaims. "I have a feather Shuriken version of your arrows now! It's awesome! I can see why you use them all the time!"

Clint blinks, then sighs. "Great..."

"Although I only have 30 of any combination only... So it is really limited. But meh. Although Tony is kinda unconscious upstairs. He really meant it when the canisters that hold the gas would break open easily and was fast acting."

Clint grins again. "Really! Well, where is he and how long is he out for?"

Ryu shrugs. "Not sure how long he's staying unconscious exactly but it will be brief apparently. But I've already drew on his face."

Clint groans. "That's so not fair. Did you at least take a picture?"

About to say something, a wad of paper suddenly bounces off his helmet. Looking up at the staircase, he spots Tony, complete with drawn on face and a highly irritated expression on his face. "Can we please refrain from testing out stuff on other Avengers... Although it lasted shorter than I expected too..."

Clint bursts into laughter while Ryu struggles to hold his in. "So, sorry Tony. Just wanted to test it."

About to reply, JARVIS suddenly speaks up. Avenger's, Mr Richards has just called. Apparently, the Baxter Building is under siege... Ryu quickly transmutes as the three rush to the QuinJet. They pass Steve who was also running to the hanger. He stumbles upon seeing Tony's face before he breaks off and heads to his suits hanger. He turns an enquiring look at the two, who were in the process of struggling not to laugh. "Tony said the KO gas would only last a few minutes and works quickly. I tested it." They round the corner, catching Wasp flying slightly ahead. "Turns out, it does work. How effective? Enough to draw on their face apparently." His grin was broad.

Steve chuckle as well as the group assembles in the jet. Sliding the gizmo to the normal setting, he makes sure it was clipped to the back of his belt before sitting down. Janet was already in her big size and sitting the pilot seat. Moments later, Iron Man comes clomping in as the hatch closes. The jet then takes off, bursts out of the river and turns towards the general direction of the Baxter building.

"So... Who's attacking them?" Ryu gives a questioning expression, before Tony just sighs.

"Got confirmation... It's Doombots... Wheel." As they approach, they can see flashes of light coming from the upper levels of the building as some machines were clambering up the sides.

As they approach, Ryu gazes wearily at the battle, a trail of fire suddenly shooting out from the building, arcs around and re-enters. "Sooo... How up to date was that info on the Doombots in the database?"

Tony grimaces from under his helmet. "Always assume it's out of date but use its info as a general guideline. That's all you can really do with Doom." He approaches the doorway as they touchdown on the roof, crushing one bot under the ship. Once the hatch was open, Tony let out a repulser blast as Steve charges forwards and into one bot, ramming it with the shield and then vaulting over as Clint's arrows hits the thing, causing it to explode. Ryu switches the shuriken holster to explosive, and throws it at a clump of robots on the side. The detonation was small, but intense, blowing all three bots away. Now that they got the machines attention, Tony points out at them as Steve and Clint take up flanking positions, Ryu back flips onto the jet's top and Janet hovers in position between the two groups.

Tony grins from under his helmet and in both his dramatic, yet commanding voice, calls out. "AVENGERS! ASSEMBLE!"

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Ryu pranked Johnny (along with Susan, Janet and HERBIE)! Level up to level 3! Gain Feather Trick Shruikens! _

_That's another upgrade to Ryu's arsenal.__ Got the idea from Hawkeyes trick arrow collection from the Avenger's movie (which, by the way. Awesome film. I've seen it multiple times now and it's still awesome). Besides, he does actually have a limited amount of the things. with a maximum cap of 30 Shuriken's in total, of which there is the option to insert up to 10 of each extra trick into these Shuriken's. So he's not going to be spamming the damn things. __Let's see. What is available to him right now is his normal Shuriken's, Explosive ones, Knockout gas, Tranquillizers and... Others. Probably a plot hook later on or something._

_So yes. This is chapter 8. The end of this story arc is approaching. Soon Ryu will be moving onto the next arc, but not before some crazy stuff happens. I'm sure most of you have guessed what's going to happen later on. But like I've said before. Minor details are the clues._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	10. Green and Doom

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

* * *

25... That was the number listed on his visor. He mentally counted the uses. Tony had 2. So that ended up at 28. One was exploding a group and another one left his hands a few moments ago and into the machine. The blackened mark on the ground was testament to the explosives of number 27 whilst number 26 was stuck in a metallic shell. So the shuriken holster was giving him his money worth. That was good. The green and brown blur that was the Owl was darting around the machines, using his superior speed and aerial manoeuvres to get in between each one.

They were starting to learn though. He managed to cause 4 bots to blow each other up before they started spreading out. They were adapting to the others as well. Some of those shots were getting closer to Janet, Clint was being hounded by several of them and Tony was in the process of attacks from all directions. Hmm...

Ryu decides this one has learnt enough. Machines adapt after a while, not on the fly like people. So he did so. Darting past his target, he hops up onto an outcropping, leaps up and lands on the bot shooting at Janet. He digs number 25 into its eye sensor before flipping off the front and kicking it back. The counter moved down to 24 now, but this was good. Now Janet was free to engage something else. He rolled on the floor, keeping a brief glance at the one's attacking him as Janet decimated one of them.

Grinning, he rushes behind the one attacking Steve, hopping up, and digging one gloves hand into the machines innards. He grabs a bunch of wires and yanks back. The thing fizzles, makes odd noises and then spins.

Ok, the cartoons made that seem like it would stop a robot, not make them spin, so he must of pulled the wrong clump of wires or something. The thing spins several more times before he let's go and rolls back a bit. Steve comes up behind it and beheads the machine with his shield. Ryu gives a grin and waves a finger in the circle above him. "Whee..." Steve reaches down and helps him up. Good thing, cause he was getting a bit tired and a little dizzy.

As he stands up, he stumbles a bit to the side. Ok, very dizzy. "Make the world stop spinning..."

"Easy soldier. Get your bearings first, then go." Steve was keeping a good hold on his arm as the world slowly rightness itself. Once done, he spots the pile of junk scattered about.

Ryu gives a nod. "Thanks Steve..."

Tony approaches the big circle they used earlier to go down and the group assembles on it. As the thing goes down, Ryu gives a hesitant look around. Once they stop, the doorway opens up to the sound of explosions. Glancing at each other, Iron man and Captain America both take point, entering the doorway wearily before moving deeper to engage the bots in there. As Ryu, Janet and Clint enter after them, they look around at the remains of many machines. Arching an eyebrow, they three follow the moving pair. Between Steve's Shield and Tony's repulser b;asts, they were decimating the numbers with some amount of ease. Makes sense, they were the leaders of the group.

An Arrow whizzes by his head, slipping in between a gap the two made and hitting a Doombots between its 'eyes'. That machine tumbled down, it's processor destroyed along with its visual sensors. Blinking, he glances back at Clint and grins. "Good shot."

Clint returns the grin. "Naturally..." He slips another arrow from his quiver and nocks this arrow, waiting for another gap. Turning back to the fight, he gives a calming breath, before dashing forwards. Jumping high, he soars over both leading Avengers, grabs a robot by the head, and flips over it. Maintaining his momentum, he heaves, causing the machine to bend a little. Landing behind it, he grunts out as he finally lifts the machine over his shoulder and into another one.

Huffing, he mentally notes he shouldn't do that again. He was tired enough as it was and heaving several hundred pounds of metal over him was dangerous enough. Hell, he was surprised he managed to lift it anyway, although a headache starting to throb probably clued him in that he exerted himself a bit too much. A gold and red hand appears in his peripheral vision, before emitting a loud whining noise and launches a blast out. Ryu winces at the noise, but acknowledges Iron Man was behind him.

A hand was pressed to his shoulder and he was pulled back as Steve rushes past and slams his shield against the machines 'neck'. "Didn't realise you were that strong. Those things are heavy enough as it is."

Ryu just pants a bit more, before rubbing his temple as his head continuing to throb. "Urgh, I'm not doing that again. And to be honest, I'm not sure how I did that myself. Guess all your training sessions were helping out Steve." He grins, which Steve gives a brief wave in reply, blocking a laser blast with his shield. Tony blasts the offender away and after a few more bots, the corridor was cleared.

The group peeked into the rooms, seeing robot parts strewn about whilst also calling out for the Fantastic Four. The group splits up, told to keep in touch with their ID cards. Ryu, Janet and Steve head down to the next floor whilst Tony and Clint search the remainder of this one.

* * *

Downstairs, the group splits up, each taking a corridor and the accompanying rooms. This floor was also littered with robot parts and no one could tell if the 4 went up or down. After several doors, Ryu gets frustrated at the lack of findings, and calls out for HERBIE. No reply.

He slaps his forehead. Duh, Tony would have had JARVIS check before arriving. He then winces and rubs his temple. The headache was slowly dying away, but it still throbbed. Opening the door, he blinks upon spotting a green cloak standing in front of some, machine thing. Tilting his head, the cloak turns, and he connects the face. Eyes widening, he quickly closes the door. "Sorry!"

Taking one step back, he bumps into something metallic. Looking up, he eeps as something grabs his arms. The door opens again. "Ah, Mr Owl. A pleasure I'm sure. I take it the other Avengers are here as well?" His voice was weird, deep and hollow yet confident and strong with a hint of refinement. Ryu just nods his head. "And you've read my profile the Avengers have as well I take it. Come, humour me with some questions. All of you so called, Heroes do so."

Well, that was patronising. The machine brought him into the room where doom was tapping away on a panel. One of Reed's Machines maybe? "Come now. Don't be afraid. Ask and I'll answer."

Ryu had a sneaky suspicion something was up. "... What's the fine print say?"

Here Doom laughs. "Oh, that one is new. There is indeed, some fine print. I'll answer some questions, and then you'll answer some questions. Seems fair no?"

Ryu gives a shrug, as best as he could with metal holding his arms to his body. "Ok... Um... Er..."

Doom turns his gaze to him. "Not a bright one. Are you?"

Ryu actually felt a little insulted at that. "Why are you here?"

Doom pauses at that. "Or just slow. That was actually a good question. You see my little green bird. I've had a, certain amount of amonosity with Mr Richards, as you may not have read on my profile. A chance to one up Mr Fantastic was just simply too much to not accept. It is you Avenger's I needed to thank anyway."

"Wha?" Well, that was intelligent.

"You see, I gave the technology to Mole Man to cause a brief distraction. A simple thing really. A way to transport his minions to the surface and take it over. But he was doomed to fail. True, it was a little annoying how he decided to not fight the Fantastic Four but rather downtown instead, but it all worked out in the end. You see, when you brought the Mole man here, you all provided a distraction." Here he presses a few more buttons on whatever he was working on. "If it was just Mole man, they would have sent him away. But you Avengers, you brought him here. And Reed, as I predicted, got distracted, although I was expecting him to be more distracted from analysing the machine rather than by Stark and Pym it all still worked out. It was an added bonus that Van Dyke successfully distracted Mrs Storm and the other two, they aren't intelligent enough to have thought that I had Mole Man, bugged I suppose you could say."

Oh god. They helped cause this. Ryu struggles a bit, trying to get out of the grip.

"With the smartest members of the group distracted, I activated the bug, overriding various protocols Richards had set up. This allowed my Doom bots access to the building without alerting them. So that's the answer to why I am here and your 'wha'. Now it's my turn. Tell me, has Mr Stark been making progress with that portal for you?"

Ryu freezes at this. How did he... He turns his gaze at doom and narrows his eyes. "How did you."

"Ah ah ah. You asked 2 questions, now it's my turn. Answer it..." He didn't know what to say, mulling over possible answers, before Doom spoke again. "No progress then. A shame. It's like he doesn't want you to leave..."

Ryu slumps slightly. Did, Tony really not want him to go home? But the other members of the team needed him! Then again, they consider him a kid still. Hell, Steve called him kid only a short while ago.

"I suppose your age is something they consider too young to do so. Isn't your world a bit too violent in their view?"

Ryu considers this. They did consider him too young to do many things. Janet knows the real ages for the group. No one has spoken up about it yet so she hasn't told them. But he was going to have to bring it up at some point... Then he remembers. Tony has been improving his equipment, in preparation of returning to his world. At least, he hopes that's the reason. He glares at Doom, solidifying his trust while trying to reach his ID card with his hands under his cloak. "They're just helping me get ready. He's still working on it!"

"Naive boy. Do you really think they will willingly send a child to a world to be used as a soldier?"

That was a shock. How did he know? "How, do you know that?"

Doom grins from under his mask, although he couldn't see it, he could feel it. "Little one, do you really think I won't be aware of my enemies' plans? I am Doctor Victor Von Doom. I know all there is to know."

Well, he's a little arrogant. He can almost reach the card, the flimsy material almost within reach. Still, what he was being told was actually starting to get to him. "Why are you telling me this! They're doing their best! Cross dimensional physics isn't easy!"

"Maybe not for you or the Avengers. But for myself." He let that sentence hang there, but the insinuation was clear as day.

He froze. "... Yourself... You, know how to open portals to my world?" He looks at Doom, feeling a sense of longing suddenly flare up. This guy had a way for him to get home all this time? Was it really that easy?

"It is a simple matter for Doom. But since the Avenger's consider me an enemy they wouldn't off asked me for help."

That, kind of made sense... He shakes his head. No, they wouldn't lie to him... Would they? His resolve was crumbling. He was making so much sense right now and the Avengers has made the point that he was too young to take part in war so many times. He's only known them for just over a week, but hadn't he proved himself yet? Do they still consider him a child?

He blinks when a metallic finger lifts his chin up. "There there. No tears. Doom will help you. I just need to deal with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and then I'll see about finding your home and returning you there." Was he crying? Oh god, he could feel a tear drop down. Why was he losing faith so much. He lowers his head again. Clenching his eyes shut, he hears Doom step away again and more tapping. What if what he said was true? He'll help him return home. He just needs to wait for Doom to deal with...

NO!

Jerking up, he mentally shouted out his response, feeling his refusal echo throughout his own mind as if several were speaking at once. Deal with the Avengers and Fantastic Four. _Deal with them_!? His hand twitches and he palms the ID card, not even caring about subtly anymore. Activating it, he looks up and stares at Doom who was busy tapping away. He squirms, before managing to loosen the machines grip on him slightly with a burst of strength he didn't even know he had. "I don't care! They've done nothing but help ever since I got here! I won't sit by and let you talk crap about them any more!"

He slips out from the machines grip while Doom looks at him in what looked like shock, or disappointment. "You would rather be stuck here? This is a onetime offer little bird..."

Ryu presses the button to send out a feather shuriken, the icon listed as Explosive as he jams it back and against the machine. "I don't care! They're my Friends! My NAKAMA!" He jumps forwards, just as the robot explodes. He uses the force of the explosion to propel forwards even faster and lands on the metal monarch before he could fully activate anything. He grabs hold of the front of his cloak, twists and sends a knee out against his head.

Feeling his knee collide with something hard, he reaches down and grabs his leg with his remaining arm, before twisting to the side. Pushing the metal leg and his head while pulling on his arm, he destabilises Doom's position. The Monarch stumbles and falls on his side as Ryu untangles himself and rolls backwards. He then grabs another feather shuriken and throws it at him, before hopping back and away from the blast radius.

The loud boom that connected with the small explosive made his ears ring, but he spared a moment to glance back, checking the status of the robot from earlier. The machine that held him was in pieces, so that was secure. He looks forwards, only in time to catch a blast to his arm. Crying out, he collapses to his side, rolls and hops back up onto his feet while clutching his arm. A laser beam!?

Doom was now standing, looking enraged and covered in a green force field. He then raises his other hand and blasts him with another laser, this one hitting his leg. Crying out, he stumbles and falls onto the ground. He rolls and places a sofa in the way, panting as he gives a brief check to his arm and leg. Both were currently screaming out in pain and he wanted to join in, but he needed to focus. This guy needed to be stopped. Closing his eyes, he grabs another explosive shuriken and listens. As the heavy steps approaches, he flings the feather up and towards the roof. A blast whizzes by, hitting the wall as the explosive collides with the roof, causing it to crumble. He hopes the four would understand that it was necessary...

Peeking out from the sofa, he spots the metal monarch point at him with his hand. He ducked, just in time as a blast hit the spot where his head just was. He leans to the side, wincing as his limbs flare up in pain again. How to deal with a guy in metal armour... He looks to the side and tries to come up with a plan. He spots an electrical outlet nearby and wonders if he could use that to disable him?

He didn't get the chance to implement it. A hand grabbed the back of his neck, and yanked him back and onto his back. He looks up before grunting when a metallic foot stomps on his stomach. He lets out oof as it wasn't a gentle stomp. It felt like a rib was bruised or something. "You should have accepted my proposition when I asked little bird. Now you will suffer under Doom." He gives a brief glance at his burnt arm and leg. "Although I don't subscribe to the habit of harming, _children_." He stresses that last word, and Ryu felt his anger flare up, blinking as a lamp finally smashes on the ground as it falls over from all the explosions going on. "I can make an, exception, for you." The pressure on his stomach built up, causing him to wince as he grips both hands onto the foot to stop it.

He couldn't stop it. The pain was getting too much and he looks up at Doom. "Although seeing how weak you are. It's probably not even worth it. Look at you. You can't stop me. Your weak, injured. You're even crying. Simply pathetic."

The tears were coming out and his vision was starting to darken. He may have some internal bleeding from the pressure to his stomach or something, before the guy steps off him. Rolling over, he coughs and wheezes, blood trickling from his mouth as he feels the terror prickle into his consciousness. The hand returned, grabbing his neck before bringing him up. He looked at Doom, the terror in his eyes reflecting off the metallic paint. "Poor child..."

Ryu clenches his eyes, expecting the worst. Before he is gently settled down next to the machine. Looking up, he was startled at how, soft he was laid. "You will perish. Along with the Fantastic Fo."

He was interrupted when something hits his back, before multiple things start rapidly hitting him and then he was launched away from him. Standing where his Doom was, now stood his saviour. Steve was glaring at Doom, cold fury raging in his eyes as Janet continues her assault. Wincing, Ryu presses his unharmed hand against his stomach, applying some pressure to hopefully prevent it from bleeding or quell the pain of being nearly crushed.

Steve squats down, concern reflecting in his eyes. "We'll take care of him. You rest, but don't sleep."

He nods, and watches Steve join in the fray. His eyes felt a little heavy, but he realises that if he fell asleep with all these injuries, there was a chance he won't wake up. Grunting, he pokes his injury with his other hand. Grimacing he lets the pain flare up and flood his pain sensors with loud signals to help keep him awake. A few moments later, Tony and Clint appear by the doorway followed by Reed and Susan. They spot him and they all widen their eyes in alarm. Tony probably did as well, but Ryu gestures behind him towards the fight and manages to wheeze out. "Them first, then me."

They all give him a look, before rushing to join the fight. Well, most of them do. Susan lets the others handle the fight as she kneels down nearby and takes a look over his injuries. Ben and Johnny both appear, half moaning about this being above his room before seeing the state Ryu was in then the way his leg was splayed out and him clutching his arm. Ben and Johnny both nod and then join in the fight against Doom. Susan applies wraps a tea cloth around his arm's burn, before bringing another cloth from the ruined kitchen to them. A brief fluff with her powers and the tea towel was dust free. She wraps this around his leg wound. "This is only temporary. We need to get those burns washed and checked over by a proper doctor."

Ryu nods, wincing in pain. "At least this will keep me up." He coughs, a trickle of blood dribbling from his mouth. A moment later there was a loud thunk before Doom's voice came out, although this was more distorted.

After a brief period, most of the group return. About to question them, Steve nods his head back in their direction. "It was a decoy." Ryu winces visibly. A decoy and he lost this bad? "It currently has a bomb of some kind in it. Reed and Tony are dealing with it. How're you Owl?" He looks concerned now, as he gives a brief glance over the injured Owl.

"My leg and arm hurts, it's a pain to breathe and I've got another headache. But most of it is numbing... Overall, I've been better." He offers a grin up at the Captain, who grins back.

"Bear with it for a while Ryu. We'll get Ms Foster to look over those injuries later on. Doom's tough, isn't he?"

Ryu winces. "Yeah... Especially when you think you're safe, he attacks from the dust." He sighs. "I forgot the most important thing in combat. Always be prepared. Never let your guard down. I let my guard down, and I paid for it." He glares at his injuries. "But I'm still alive... He..."

"It's alright Ryu. We'll talk later." Steve places a comforting hand on his shoulder that was attached to his uninjured arm. Before looking up and marching towards Tony who was approaching. Ben appears in his peripheral vision, and he turns to look at the orange guy. "Doom is our bad guy, we take full responsibility for dragging you all into this."

Ryu shakes his head. "Please don't. I don't like it when Ken took all the responsibility for disasters from us and I don't like it when people take responsibility for my mistakes. I screwed up. I shouldn't have let my guard down at all, nor should I of taken so long calling for help." Ryu gives a stern glare at Ben when he opens his mouth. "No Arguments. I'm the injured one here, so humour me." He shuts his mouth and gives a helpless look to Susan. She shrugs and he sighs in response.

Janet lands nearby and enlarges, while Clint comes over and helps him up onto his one uninjured foot. "We're heading back. Wish it was in better circumstances..."

Ryu gives a weary grin. "Sorry about the roof by the way. I thought it'll slow him down." They all look up, before face-palming at the hole in the roof.

"That explains why the debris isn't piled underneath it. C'mon then Owl. Let's get you to medical."

Ryu nods his head. His stomach was burning but he was getting used to the pain. It takes a while to return to the Quinjet. He does wince again when the straps press against his stomach but the pain was dying away. A few minutes later, Tony arrived with Steve. They both glanced at him, so he offered a weak smile back. Janet launches the Quinjet and returns to the mansion, Tony asking JARVIS to prepare some things ahead of them and to contact certain people...

* * *

_Next day_

Ryu gives a groan as the bandages around his arm were unwrapped. It's been a whole day and he was already sick of being injured. His stomach was bruised and there was a bit of internal bleeding, not broken like he thought, but everything, the internal bleeding, the bruise on his stomach and the burns to his limbs were all healing nicely. But no matter how much he enjoys the long nap he took, he wanted to do _something_ now. He did get to meet Thor's lady friend though. Jane Foster was nice. A trained paramedic was always helpful. His knowledge of first aid was decent. Not as good as an actual Paramedic, but still decent enough.

He was bored though. And a Bored Owl was, well, a bored Owl. 5 minutes more of doing nothing and he finally decided to take a leaf out of Joe's book. Slipping out of the bad, he winces as the pressure on his leg injury flares up, but it was a lot less than expected. That was good. He hobbles to the door, opens it and peeks out. Looking left and right, he spots no one in sight. That's also good. He steps out and turns towards the corridor that led to the roof.

3 steps later, Steve steps from around the corner and crosses his arms. "... You should be in bed recovering mister."

How did they... "Asking for fresh air won't do anything... would it?" Steve keeps that sterns look up, and Ryu crumbles. "But I'm bored..." He stood, unmoving. "5 minutes only?" Still nothing... "2 minutes?" Still nothing... "A minute?" Well, he reacted to that. By pointing at the door. Ryu gives a sigh, before about facing and marching right back in. Once under the blankets, he looks up at Steve, crosses his arms while suppressing a wince, and in a deadpan voice, utters out "You're mean..."

Steve remarks back. "And you're injured. You"

Ryu disrupts him. "Don't finish that!"

Steve grins. "... need your rest."

Ryu groans and slumps down. "And you finished it... Damnit..."

Steve gives him an apologetic look. "If it helps, you were recovering faster than expected. Ms Foster says you can do some light exercise soon. I said SOON!" He reiterated that last bit, mainly because Ryu was in the process of getting out of bed.

"Aww..." He reluctantly gets back in. He spends a brief moment talking with him, before he eventually ends it with a promise to stay in bed. "Well, do we have a time frame for when I can start these light exercises soon?"

Steve shakes his head. "Soon comes when soon comes. Not a second earlier. Now rest."

Ryu sighs and lies down, watching as Steve finally gets up and leaves. Once he was gone, Ryu sighs and looks up. Was Doom right? Were they keeping him in this world so he didn't have to go back? He was pondering on this, before blinking and smiling. No. They wouldn't do that. For one thing, they would rather hasten the development. Why? As much as he hates to admit it, the Avengers wouldn't want 'children' to be sent to war. And from how he described things, sending Thor and Iron man to their world would be more than enough to take out Galactor.

Rolling onto his side, he takes a deep breath and starts to relax properly.

* * *

_Several days later_

Ryu gives a stretch. It's been a while, but he was glad he was out of bed. Sure, he recovered faster than expected, but it was still a pain waiting for so long. His arm and leg was still a bit sore and his stomach did complain if he eats too much, but other than that, it's all good.

"So, glad to be out of those?" Janet was with him this time, watching as he stretched the last kinks out of his body. Well, her and Jane Foster, but yeah...

"No offence Ms Foster, but I am glad. Those things are itchy and I was going crazy sitting down doing nothing the past few days."

Janet sticks her tongue out. "We know. You've been bugging everyone ever since. Now we can get some peace and quiet."

Jane Foster spoke up next. Her Paramedic uniform neatly pressed. "Still, nothing too strenuous. Light exercise only. Try to let the others do the world saving than you."

Giving a shrug, he was about to comment when some guy walks past the door. He was dressed in a, familiar way but he didn't look familiar at all. Clint trailed behind him, grumbling something. "Who was that guy that just walked past?"

Janet blinks, peeks out the door and grins. "Just Bruce going Fishing. Hulk let's him out each month and he likes fishing. Clint goes with to watch over h"

Ryu was already grinning widely at that, and interrupted her. "Fishing!?"

Jane gives a shrug, having figured out that he wanted to go. "Well, it's not strenuous, so you can go... Doctor Banner is also a good set of eyes as well. Just encase."

Ryu was already grabbing some things, before running out into the corridor, missing the chuckles from the two girls and saying something about boys. "Mr Banner! Mr Banner!" Finally caught up, both Bruce and Clint look confused. Panting a bit, Ryu gathers his breath, rests a hand on his chest and breaths out slowly. He then grins. "You're going fishing right?"

Bruce gives a nod, and enquiring look on his face. Clint also looks confused for a moment, before his eyes light up in realisation. "Oh! You came from a fishing village didn't you?"

Ryu nods his head eagerly while Bruce smiles. "Well then, why don't you join us? It'll be nice not having someone scaring the fish away with his complaining."

Clint shrugs. "Hey, I'm only going because someone needs to look out for you. But with Ryu here, he can do that himself. So as much as I like being bored silly, I'll leave it to you two." Here, Clint gestures carelessly in the air and leaves.

Ryu just shrugs. "Fishing isn't boring, it's relaxing..."

Bruce smiles. "Finally, someone gets it. C'mon, I have a spare fishing pole from when Clint tried to fish several months ago."

Ryu grins. "Do you think we can commandeer a QuinJet? It'll get there faster. Wherever there is."

Bruce chuckles. "This is starting to sound like the beginning of a beautiful friendship Ryu."

Jane pokes her head out of the door. "Make sure it's not too strenuous He's still recovering from a burn to his left bicep and his right knee."

Bruce nods, spotting the slight discolouration to the aforementioned areas since he was wearing shorts and a shirt. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem. C'mon. If Tony wants to complain he'll complain to the Hulk. You can fly it, right?" They both set off to the QuinJet after Ryu nods in agreement and popping into the Hulks room (which was remarkably tidy) to commandeer the second fishing pole before setting off.

Following Bruce's directions, they approach a fairly isolated lake with a shack near the road. With no one else out at this time since prime fishing time is in the morning, this would be completely peaceful and isolated. Which suited Ryu just fine. Fish bites at all times of day, they're just more active in the early hours than the rest of the day.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ It's Doctor Doom. Of course Ryu wasn't going to win. He knows what buttons to push to aggravate the Owl, he's planted several seeds of doubt on the off chance he does escape, and he attempted to vilify the Avengers. It was all gone to plan. Although having him being able to contact the Avengers wasn't so much his plan. He made sure to prevent signals being sent to them from there. Activating the card would have just made some noise from the card but nothing else. What really contacted them were the explosions. I mean, several booms would of grabbed their attention._

_And hello Bruce Banner. Yes, I homed in on that 'month off' being Hulk thing he did in the series. I just had to do it. I mean, who else would want to do Ryu's favourite past time for no apparent reason than Bruce?_

_Of course, I slipped in a few more hints for the future, cause I like the fact I'm still aware of all the plot hooks I've made in my story (and I'm honestly surprised how well I'm doing with this).__ Little minor details that have been cropping up throughout all three of my fics, hinting at the coming of the next 2 chapters and beyond. And boy, are they a biggy. Normally I have difficulties in writing more than 5000 words. But the next chapter is already reaching that number. It may even hit the big 6!_

_I'm finishing this authors note with one of my favourite quotes ever that will totally be relevant to everything... __Well, kinda _relevant: 'Wibbly wobbly, timey wimy!'

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	11. The end of the Owl

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

_Also. Achievement unlocked. Write a chapter with more than 6000 words!_

* * *

This was the life, lying against the bow of the boat, his wide brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes and his hand resting on the metal pole that was next to him. The gentle sloshing of water splashing along the side of the boat and a gentle humming coming from the only other occupant. He snorts slightly when the pole begins moving from under his hand and he springs into action. Pushing the front of the straw hat up and away from his sight, he lifts the pole up and begins tugging and reeling. After a brief fight, the line breaks the waterline and proudly displays the fish.

Bruce gives an appreciative nudge as he brings it over to the large water container they brought with them. Delicately releasing it from the lines hook, he lets the fish drop into the container of water, joining it's brethren in their prison. Giving a grin, he dips his hand into the bait, threads another piece onto the hook and lets the line fly back into the water with a flick of the wrist. This was his element. Well, this and flying. Potentially Sumo wrestling as well, although he wasn't sure if they had a way for foreigners to try it out. Still. He had fishing and flying, so he was happy. His arm and leg was healing up nicely and none of these fish was putting much stress on him. And even if they did, with 4 fish caught between them, there wasn't enough to cause any stress to his injuries. Bruce did check on him every now and then but he was given the all clear each time.

"So Ryu. Clint mentioned you came from a fishing village. How did you go from fisherman to, ninja-soldier?" Bruce finally spoke up, sounding completely at ease in this situation.

Ryu hums for a moment. "Well, Doctor Nambu did visit my village several years before actually assembling the team. He wanted to do some research on the area for his sustainable fishing practices he wanted to implement. Since all the older men were busy, Father told me to take him out for some basic research, which was weird since he didn't think I was old enough at the time but I suppose bugging him about it for months finally decided to give me a try." He gives a grin, remembering the times he bugged his father with requests to go to see on his own. "Then we had some rough seas occurring, which was weird since the forecast said the place would be calm all week. So there I was, trying to keep everything working when Nambu spots a Whirlpool. I didn't know what to do, those things rarely form that far out at sea. It wasn't a huge one, it was actually fairly small, but it was strong enough to drag the boat in. I tried to get us out, using all the tricks my father taught me, but it wasn't enough."

Bruce nods his head, intrigued at the story. Although a spontaneous Whirlpool was odd.

"After a few spins, the boat capsized when a particularly strong wave hit the side of the ship. We both fell out and I'm not sure how long we spent in the water or how far we drifted from the whirlpool, but by the time I broke through the surface, the whirlpool was gone and everything was calm. I found Nambu in his life preserver close by. He looked a little out of it and a bit of blood was on his head, but it didn't look serious. Thankfully I knew where the nearest Island was, so I swam the distance. I may not look it, but I'm a pretty mean swimmer. Living on the coast and living in a fishing village does that." Ryu grins at this, thumping his chest with pride.

Bruce returns the grin.

"So I managed to bring him to the island and we were letting our clothes dry on the rock while the sun was out still. This was the island that everyone thought was haunted. I mean, we sometimes hear groans coming from it despite the fact no one was on the island. After a bit of exploring, we return to the beach to talk. Then Nambu started talking about life in the City. I, admit. I was curious. A country kid like me would of found it a curiosity the country is nice and all, but everything happens in the city. He mentioned something about sponsoring me through school and that's when I realised, it was fate. Going to a high school out in a respectable city, any kid would have wanted that. Sure, there were no sumo stables there, but a chance to further my education? My parents jumped at the idea once the rescue boat arrived."

Bruce adopts a thoughtful expression. "So, how did this boating accident let you become a pilot of a warship? I'm not entirely seeing the common denominator between the two."

Ryu nods his head at that question, although a little confused at the word. "Good question, which is explained later. I stayed at Nambu's with four other kids he adopted or was looking after. Ken, Joe, Jun and Jinpei. So anyway it was weird being the country kid. I felt like an outsider for a while, especially since they all lived in the city. They were also jealous that I had a family but I could tell there was something more to them than meets the eye. I wasn't sure what, but I could tell I didn't find out till much later that it was a drive to protect those kind of bonds that people had."

He offers a brief smile. "So I went to school like normal, getting good grades and the like. That's when I made my first paper airplane. For a first try, it flew really well. So I showed the others, hoping they would like it since Ken liked planes and he was well liked enough. Well, Ken did in fact like it. He mentioned that folding it in other places could help stabilise it but it was really good for a first try. Joe, he didn't care. Jinpei found it hilarious and Jun was a little annoyed I was playing around instead of studying." He gives a grin again.

"Nambu found out and asked to see it. I was really embarrassed. I thought he was going to tell me off or something for not focussing on my studies. He asked if this was the first one I've ever made and I confirmed it. I thought, maybe if it was the first attempt I could get off lighter? I didn't expect to get a video game out of it."

Bruce looks confused at this. "You got, a video game for making a paper airplane? Was it really THAT good?"

Ryu grins. "Technically, it wasn't a video game. It was a flight simulator."

Bruce widens his eyes, suddenly realising. "So that's when..."

Ryu nods. "He was considering me for it. He wanted to see if my reflexes and improvisational skills with the boat carried on to a plane. Fast thinking, an eye for weather patterns, wrestling stubborn controls and general movement resistance from the sea and air. Those are the things boating and planes share in common. I probably also showed an eye for planes with that paper one I made. He wasn't disappointed."

He gives a fond smile, pauses and points at Bruce's rod, which was being tugged on, Bruce quickly goes for his fishing pole, heaves it up and starts reeling the fish in. This one was quite a big one as well and also joined it's brethren into the container. Once the line was let out again and it was secured, he continues the story.

"Ken also tried it out. He was good, but I was better. It was amusing, seeing him trying to beat my high scores but each time he managed to overtake it, I'll just surpass his. I had 'natural talent'. It was nice having something that I could do that was better than the others, they've been showing me up ever since I got that. Even Ken and Joe were better at fighting than me, although I didn't find out till later they were using their training to beat me, it still hurt that I wasn't capable of winning fights. I even tried a two player version with Jinpei that some ships had. Ken was a little annoyed at the fact that the top 10 had me in number 1 and then me and Jinpei. The rest of the scores were alternating between me and him. So Nambu kept updating the game, putting in more variations of the plane. Ken was partial to the Cessna plane, and he actually does own one back home that transforms into a small jet. But I didn't have a favourite one, so I tried them all."

He leans back and grins. "Then he added one more plane. This plane wasn't aerodynamic, it wasn't graceful or as efficient as the fighter jets I was trying before. To be honest, it was a brick with thrusters. But it was the power that I liked. It was a ship that took after my own heart, powerful yet the potential of reacting better than the other planes was there. It just needed a pilot to do so. And that was me. It became my favourite plane. Heh, I didn't actually know until I was told, but that was the prototype for the God Phoenix. So I was completely obliterating the high scores, it was also one of the few ships that allowed more than one player to join in. Nambu really thought of everything when he made this game. Well, it wasn't entirely a game, it was a training simulator. A few weeks after consistently beating the high scores, Nambu invited me down to the basement levels."

He smiles softly. "The training centre was down there, and I was formally asked to join the Science Ninja team as the pilot. So yeah, that's how I joined the team. How about you? Have you always been capable of going Green?"

Bruce shifts uncomfortably for a moment. "My profile lists all the needed information about that, but it's safe to say I shouldn't really be alive. The Hulk, he saved my life. I was caught in a gamma explosion. For all intents and purposes, I should have died. But instead I became the Hulk. He's, not always been the hero. But he is power, personified. The Army wanted him and all sorts of hells happened. When the Avenger's first met up, I had to convince the Hulk to try being a team-mate. That he could do good things for the world. And he has. We've steadily been improving other people's views on the Hulk and although many are still concerned or afraid, there are a great many people who have started seeing the Hulk as a force for good."

Ryu smiles. "Well I like the Hulk. So you have one more person to add to that right?"

Bruce grins. "Thanks for that."

Ryu shrugs. "Besides, it's nice having someone who is blunt about things. He's kinda like Joe in a sense. If you screw up, he'll call you on it. If some explanation is getting too wordy, he'll tell you to speak English. That, and he's Green! That automatically made him awesome."

Bruce chuckles. "Not often someone likes someone because they were green. Heh."

They both chuckles some more, before looking at their watches. They both whistle at the time. They've been fishing for several hours and it was getting close to returning home time. Ryu looks over the fishes they caught and notes their sizes. "Well, we'll have to put a few of them back in, but we can keep these 3. How about it? Up for some BBQ fish?"

Bruce nods. "Do you know how to cook them?"

Ryu gives a slightly affronted expression. "Do I know how to cook them? Didn't I just tell you I came FROM a fishing village? What do you think the main food source we ate was? Chicken?" Bruce chuckles at that. "I'll just use the two big one. That's enough for me and you. I'll have to de-scale and gut it, but that's easy enough to do." He lets Bruce take a picture of the fish, before they both started picking fish out and releasing them back into the waters. Once they had the last fish, they returned to land where Ryu proceeded to ask Bruce to light up the BBQ while he got the fish prepared. The shack nearby had some condiments for people cooking their fish, so he asked Bruce to get some salt, pepper and a lemon.

Once he was ready, he moved onto the task, getting it seasoned and de-scaled before eventually putting it on the grill. The smell of cooking fish became the area's scent for a while and it made both their stomachs growl in hunger. He was in his element here, fishing and cooking. Especially with friends. Once done he showed Bruce how to eat it correctly and they spent the last hour remaining having a fine meal.

Once they were cleaned up, they hopped into the QuinJet and Ryu flew it back to the mansion. They landed about 5 minutes later than expected, but they were too relaxed and happy to be bothered about it.

Although they did ask JARVIS to let the others know they were back. The reply was different. "The Avengers are currently out. The Masters of Evil have shown up so they wanted me to ask you both to be ready encase your needed." They both turn to each other, and nod. Getting ready will only takes a few seconds for them both, so they spent the time just chatting.

Then the call came.

"The Avenger's need you both downtown! Hurry!" JARVIS sounded worried himself, so they both quickly transformed. A shout of Bird go, a dazzle of light and the tearing of clothes and a few seconds later, the Horned Owl and The Hulk were both ready and waiting. They rush to the QuinJet and set off. They probably could of ran out and searched, but this way they had a guidance system and it would be faster.

* * *

**_The battleground, Downtown New York_**

_"If you're just tuned in, we're currently reporting on the battle with the Avengers against the Masters of Evil. And it's looking grim with the addition of this new villain. We don't have a name yet so I'm taking the executive decision and calling him bubble man._" The screen pans towards the battle and it was clear that it wasn't looking good for the Avenger's. The Masters of Evil had a new guy join them and this guy was creating bubbles that reflected attacks back. And he was using the effect to a great potential, since he was enveloping Avenger's inside them. Although it took a while to form them, the others were keeping the free Avenger's busy whilst bringing those they have beaten to this bubble man.

"_With Wasp and Hawkeye taken out, it's all up to Iron Man, Captain American, Yellow Jacket and the Black Widow to stop this group. But can they do it on their own? It's 4 vs. 10 and the Avengers are at a huge disadvantage as heavy hitters like the Abomination and Absorbing man are working together with the likes of Baron Zemo and Crimson Dynamo. Even the Wrecking Crew are a threat! Things are, NO!_"

The newswoman was in distress as Tony gets batted away from his fight by the Abomination. Arcing in the air, he slams into Hank and both tumble and roll on the ground. Tony starts rising but Wonder man is by him in an instant. Grabbing his gauntlets, he squeezes and yanks back, ripping his repulser's away and away from the fight. He then grabs his neck, and gives him a thunderous right which sends him to Bubble man, who starts enveloping the invincible Iron man in his impenetrable bubbles. Hank is thrown towards them next as the villains they were fighting moves on to the two remaining Avengers. "_Iron Man and Yellow Jacket are down! I repeat! Iron Man and Yellow Jacket are down!_"

Then the sound of something familiar echoes as everyone looks up, including the cameraman. The camera shows another QuinJet arriving on the scene. The camera tracks a figure dropping out and with a roar, it lands on the Abomination. As the dust settles, Abomination is launched out of the dust and into Absorbing man and the Hulk bursts from the cover and charges at the two power houses. Looking up, the jet lands on a nearby roof and out of sight. "_Thank god! It looks like reinforcements have arrived! The Hulk is on the scene! The pressure on the Widow and the Captain are letting up, obviously seeing their biggest, green problem arriving! Looks like things are looking up! I'll never of thought I'll be happy to see the Hulk appear but in this case, I'm glad!_"

* * *

**_Rooftop, Downtown New York_**

Ryu lands the QuinJet on the nearby roof. Once it was secure, he moves to the edge and looks down. He spots a large crowd of civilians gathered at the end of the street, the policeman trying to get them out but with several destroyed vans in the way, it was a challenge and the news crew weren't making it any easier. Looking back, he clicks his now shuriken holster, sets it to KO and extracts two. Tony hasn't yet filled it back up, so he was running off what he had last time. He then switches to explosive and picks this one up as well. With both Shuriken's in one hand and a single KO in the other, he jumps down, twists and launches the pair down at the enemy. One hits Absorbing man on the shoulder whilst the other lands next to the Crimson Dynamo.

The gas letting out and the explosion from the feather surprise the Masters of Evil. Having caught Clint, they weren't expecting that kind of attack. Ryu suddenly glides in, his wings snapping closed a few feet above Wrecker and landing on his head. He uses the force to slam him face down into the ground. He jabs the remaining KO shuriken into the ground next to the guy's head and leaps into Bulldozer's stomach. With Wrecker and Absorbing man out cold for a few minutes, and the Crimson Dynamo stunned, the tables turn completely as Bulldozer is quickly dealt with.

Some quick jabs here and there and then some more jabs at certain pressure points and he was completely out of it, laying on the floor paralysed from the neck down. And not a moment too soon, because Thunder ball was charging at him in a rage, the metal ball on the chain swinging above him. He quickly flings a handful of his limited feathers out at him, before switching the holster to normal and ejecting one into his hand. Flinging that out with a bit more accuracy, the arm holding the ball chain goes numb... Again.

He jumps forwards, avoiding Pile driver's sneak attack as he flips forwards, bounces off his hands and slams, feet first into the guy's head. Bouncing and flipping back off of him, he lands and jabs at his stomach, then uppercuts the guy's chin. He felt like a bully now. This was the second time he dealt with Thunder ball like this. Still, no time to lament. He back flipped away from Piledriver, lands near the slowly rousing Wrecker and jabs at several more pressure points on his back. Locking his arms and legs in place as the huge armed opponent approaches the pair. He jumps forwards, under the guy's guard and knees him in the stomach.

A brief roar is heard and then it goes quieter. Lifting up one leg and hitting the large armed guy's head, he leaps up, spins and brings his other leg to the other side of his head. Holding tight, he quickly flips, throwing the guy over him as he spots a green shape fly into the distance. Landing on his back, he lifts his legs up and pushes off with his shoulders, landing on his feet. He quickly gauges the situation. The Wrecking crew was out of it, as was Absorbing man although he was slowly waking up. Abomination was charging at him whilst the Crimson Dynamo and Wonder man were both taking on the Black Widow.

He quickly slides his Shuriken's back to explosive, because he didn't think he could take on that kind of guy on his own. As the green, scaly giant approaches, he jumps up, flings the shuriken down and snaps his wings out to glide away. The explosion was brief, yet loud and he landed with some space between them. But having learnt his lesson, he stays weary, expecting him to come charging out, just like Doom did in the Baxter Building.

* * *

**_The battleground_**

"_The situation has completely turned around! With the additional power of the Hulk and the Horned Owl, things are looking up in this fight!_" The cameraman pans the view between the two, the Hulk bashing at the Abomination's face several times before he counters with a right hook to the Green Giant's stomach. Ryu is seen next, taking down the four members of the wrecking crew. They may not be a huge threat, but they are a bother and distractions can cost the fight for you.

"_We should, Oh god no!_" Again, the Newswoman cries out. And as the Camera man brings the screen to the Hulk. They see him fly off into the distance, the Abomination holding Absorbing man like a bat as they watch the flying Hulk soar away. Abomination drops the unconscious guy onto the ground, turns around and charges at the Owl. "_Phew. Thank god he saw that in time!_" The Owl somehow saw this, jumped up and left an explosive Shuriken in the Abominations path. He then stares in weariness at the dust cloud...

* * *

A good lesson learned, because the Abomination came charging out a few moments later. He was met with another explosive shuriken to the face as he leaps up and over the guy. Another explosion and he gave a brief flip in the air before hopping up onto the lamppost. The Black Widow was in the process of being thrown to Bubble man, so he got out another explosive shuriken to throw. The counter was going down still, he was running low on these but he still had 4 left. He backs off, hoping to put some distance between them before something purple flutters into his vision. He then bends over in half, clutching his stomach as Wonderman forms near him, fist sunk into his gut. Tumbling back, he raises himself up with one arm while clutching his stomach with the other.

"Stay down boy..."

* * *

**_Xaviours' Institute for the Gifted_**

"Oooh! That's going to leave a mark!" The guy with blond hair winces as the TV reporter showed the brutal fight between the Avengers and the Masters of Evil. The Owl was now fighting against Wonder man, the purple being hesitant yet decisive.

He looks back and spots some more students approach, looking at the TV in worry. "Do you think they're going to be OK?"

The guy with red glasses shrugs. "Wolverine is en route, so they should be Ok. It's only, Jean? Are you ok?"

The red head was holding her temple, a mixture of pain and worry on her face. "I don't know why, but, I feel worried about this. It's not a normal bit of worry though. Like how everyone gets into trouble or someone is about to be hurt. It feels like, I don't know, my parents are in trouble. Like my Family is in trouble. Scott... I have a terrible feeling something is going to happen?"

They were disrupted when the TV reporter gasps. "No! HYDRA has joined the fight!" They all look at the screen, suddenly even more worried as the mechanical monstrosities that HYDRA employs arrive. The large beings fire at Steve who somehow blocks with his Shield, but it's looking really bad for him...

"Scott, I have a really bad feeling about this."

"This, doesn't include mutants. It's not our business to intervene..."

"But Scott..."

* * *

**_Baxter Building_**

"Oh please, make it in time!" The Baxter Building was vacant. The Fantastic Four having left already to help deal with the escalating fight and the AI was busy watching the fight. "Oh No! Not the Nice Owl! Oh thanks goodness Johnny made it!" HERBIE gives what he considers a sigh of relief as the screen shows a bolt of fire lands in the group of HYDRA Goons and another collide with Wonderman, the Human Torch has arrived!

Moments later, the rest of the Fantastic Four joins in and the Hulk re-enters the battle, although Hulk lands in the middle of a group of mecha's all of which take aim at him and fire. "With everyone gathered together, this should be doable! Go everyone!" Reed quickly wraps up a group of HYDRA goons with his body as Susan moves to engage Wonderman who was just blown back when Ryu jumps back and throws an explosive shuriken at him. Ben jumps down to join the fight but is stopped by the Crimson Dynamo.

* * *

**_The battleground_**

The fight was getting even more chaotic. With all these machines and Solders from HYDRA joining in, in addition to the Fantastic Four and the Hulk, it was becoming a jumbled mess. He was resisting the urge to charge at the goons and take them out quickly, but he and Steve have been working on that all week. He can resist that urge. At least, he could resist it. Still, resisting these urges was still a challenge and he makes the mistake of staying in one place for too long as he worked on suppressing the urge.

He is jerked back when something grabs his cloak and yanks him up. He comes face to face with the Abomination, who gives a sadistic grin. Eeping, he kicks out, smacking the guy in the face with his boot in the hopes it'll dislodge him from the power house's grip. He looks at the Owl, now thoroughly pissed off as someone calls out to him. "Abomination, hurry up and deal with him then take down the Hulk!"

The Abomination grins up. "With pleasure!" He feels a fist slam into his chest and all the air leaves him. The second and third one likewise leaves him rattled and in pain whilst the fourth, fifth and sixth punch was more of a numbed feeling before he felt a crack. The other half dozen punches ended up with him limp in his hand having fainted after the 7th hit, blood dripping from his mouth. Abomination then swings him around once and then launches him towards bubble man as he charges at the Hulk. Ryu lands just shy of the distance, bouncing off the ground several times with a loud thump and then through a tree. As he rolls to a stop, he doesn't move, a blood trailing from his mouth as Bubble man approaches, ready to seal him away...

* * *

**_Undisclosed Location_**

Slowly opening his eyes, Ryu gives a confused look around. Why was everything going white? Were those hits that hard that he fainted or was this what the inside of the bubbles looked like?

Looking around, Ryu was confused to find himself sitting in a chair. He blinks suddenly, when he recognises the limited colour there was in his surroundings. Wait wasn't that Ken's seat on the God Phoenix? He was on the God Phoenix? Since when!?

Looking around, the muted white colour of the area he was in looked eerily familiar to the God Phoenix. He wonders why he was dreaming this, when a form shifts near him. Wait, was that Ken? He seats himself down, while he turns around. He spots Joe, Jun and Jinpei take their seats. They all smile at him (Joe smiling at him!? Was he in heaven?), before saying something.

Except there was no sound. Now freaked out, he turns to Ken, who looks at him with a soft look. He turns his gaze to the monitors, idly noticing that the limited colour around him was slowly shrinking towards the monitor. The screen activates suddenly and he was watching what just happened in the lake.

Confused at this, he watches this, before it moves to his encounter with doom. It's strange. It's like he was watching his life flash before his... His eyes suddenly widen!

NO!

* * *

**_The battleground_**

"_That has got to be painful! The Horned Owl is lying crumpled up near Bubble Man who is about to seal him away. But after all those hits from Abomination it's to be expected... And... He... Isn't sealing him away?_" The cameraman brings the camera over to the scene near Bubble man and The Horned Owl. The screen zooms in to show a badly beaten green figure lying motionless on the floor with Bubble man nudging him slightly, as if confused, having stopped forming a bubble a few moments ago. "_What's going on?_"

* * *

Bubble man was a little freaked out. He was dealing with the Avenger's as they were sent to him. With the bubbles he can create, any attacks they use would reflect back at them and the bubbles were virtually impervious from the inside. Hawkeyes arrows did nothing, Wasps stingers couldn't do anything. Even the Black Widow, who just woke up, couldn't pop them. Iron man was grumbling and speaking something in hushed whispers, and it looked like the Masters of Evil will win this.

So he was understandably freaked out when the Horned owl came crashing through a tree and towards him. He wasn't moving, so he was completely out of it. Well, the shock was over, so it was time to seal him away. Which was a shame. He actually liked the Owl. It's not every day someone of his body and size did the heroic thing and although he was a bad guy, he was a guy with a similar build. Although he had a lot less muscle mass, he admired the Owl.

The beginnings of the bubble forming in his hands, he blinks when he realises something was wrong. Letting the bubble pop with him releasing it, he approaches the fallen Owl and looks over him intently, nudging him lightly with his foot.

"Something's wrong..." He couldn't figure out what was wrong. He was unconscious. He wasn't moving to attack. He wasn't a danger, so why was he so on edge. 10 seconds later, he realised why, and was now kneeling down next to him with his hand around his neck lightly, a finger pressed to that part of his neck. "Oh no. No no no..." He wasn't moving. At all. His chest wasn't moving, he wasn't gasping. He wasn't _breathing_. He didn't sign up for this! He didn't expect them to kill an Avenger and send them over. No pulse... Oh god, there was no pulse! "No no no, no no no..." He was panicking, and repeating that same word over and over again. Until he was brought back to his senses by a boot to the head. Literally.

"Heads up!" Snapping his gaze up, his face gives a brief hello to a red foot. A powerful kick caused him to flip back and tumble back as the assailant flips around and lands on the floor in front of the Owl in a crouch. "You do know that bad guys always lose and all that right? So why not cut to the chase and give up?" Bubble man rises but doesn't do anything else, looking at him in sheer panic. "So, you're actually giving up then? Huh. Didn't actually expect that to work."

The guy looks up at Spiderman, before bursting out in hysterics. "I didn't sign up for this man! It was Abomination! Not me!" Now Spiderman was confused, before turning around and looking at the Owl, who still hasn't moved.

"Hey, you OK? Hey, Owl? ... Oh... crap... Hey! Stay with me!" He shifts his position, pressing the side of his head to his stomach, before cursing.

* * *

"_Spiderman has just arrived! Looks like Bubble man is too afraid to... What... Oh..._" The Camera watches as Spiderman presses his ear to the Owl's stomach, before rising up and moving him gently, looking around in a panic before making a gesture to The Invisible Woman. Wonderman and her stop their fighting, whilst she comes over as his call and she takes over.

Removing his helmet, she starts compressing his stomach and breathing into the Owl's unconscious no, dying body. They catch some of the Avengers renewing the attack, looking more angry than usual. "_The Invisible Woman is performing CPR on the Owl... Oh god. He wasn't breathing... Did those hits from the Abomination do that much damage?_" Wonderman just stood there in shock whilst Spiderman was nervously watching this occur nearby.

* * *

**_Undisclosed Location_**

Ryu watches the home movie, tears building in his eyes but refusing to let them fall. He didn't want these memories shown to him! He knows that when you're dying, your life flashes before your eyes! In this case, it was happening, meaning he was dying. He couldn't die! Galactor was still around!

He was watching himself as a 7 years old, playing with a toy boat his father made for him whilst checking on his mother who was pregnant with his baby brother, although they didn't know it at the time so they were unsure what colours to use. He already seen his teenage years and now it was his childhood. He was holding his legs, despairing. He didn't want to die.

"C'mon Ryu! Wake up!" He jerks his head up. That voice was familiar! Wait, It's Susan! From the Fantastic Four. "C'mon! Don't die on us!"

He calls out. "I'm here Susan! Please help! I don't want to die! I have too much to do! Too much to prove!" His cries to the roof, looking at the members of the team. Jinpei was fading, as was Joe and Jun. Ken was also fading and the rear of the God Phoenix was becoming whiter. "I don't want to die guys! I need to come back! To save you all!"

He jumps from his seat, trying to pull levers but found his hand going through them. They were ghostly. He felt tears prickle in his eyes. "I... Don't want to die..."

* * *

**_The battleground_**

The fight was becoming more intense. With Bubble man no longer wanting to fight (instead he was crying in the road), the trapped Avengers were finally freed by Wolverine who just arrived. They fought with a strong tenacity, but Hulk and Abomination were really going at it. With the two powerhouses angrily going at it, the AIM group decides they wanted to try their hand at destroying the Avengers. This was starting to become a serious danger to everyone around and a big free-for-all.

But with Ryu apparently dead, the Avengers were too angry, too grief-stricken to focus much.

* * *

**_Undisclosed Location_**

"Please! I need to help them! Someone! Anyone!" He was now remembering things he did at 6. He knew that once his earliest memory was seen, he would be gone forever. The Whiteness was now starting to coat everything, and he finally lost his hope. Collapsing to his knees, he lets his tears flow. "I... Help..." His eyes closed as his memories stop playing on the monitor. The screens going red as he feels a woman in bird style hold him from behind in a comforting embrace. "Jun... I've failed you... I've failed you all..."

"No you didn't, my Owl. I failed you."

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Badda-Boom! Ryu's dead, or is he? Having someone with hulk-like strength, smashing his fist into your body 12 times when you're still partially recovering from having a man made of metal burn your arm and leg and step on you to the point of unconsciousness I don't expect a normal person to survive. And Believe it or not, Ryu is a normal person. Well, a highly trained person, but a person nonetheless. Can Hawkeye resist getting pounded by the Hulk a dozen times in the stomach without serious injury? While already injured from having a heavy weight press down on his stomach earlier? I don't think so... _

_Still, Ryu is, well, was normal. __Of course, this is now the perfect time to re-read the first two fics again. Because things are going to heat up and go crazy! All those little details I've slipped into all three fics, they're coming to this finale._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	12. The God Phoenix, Reborn!

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman, Avengers or Wolverine and the Xmen. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

**_AN: _**_All those plates breaking in his first breakfast and panic attack, falling down despite not being near them. Suddenly knowing how to speak English despite not needing to before. Lamps falling down suddenly in response to his emotions. All sorts of little things passing and going. _

_All leading to this..._

_The God Phoenix has returned... And she is back with more power and a new shell._

* * *

_New speech means a new ways of speaking! So..._

_"Blah blah" in double-quotes is someone speaking_

_'blah blah' in single-quotes is mind speech_

_blah blah with no quotes is story text and Ryu's thought_

* * *

_Previously..._

_"Please! I need to help them! Someone! Anyone!" He was now remembering things he did at 6. He knew that once his earliest memory was seen, he would be gone forever. The Whiteness was now starting to coat everything, and he finally lost his hope. Collapsing to his knees, he lets his tears flow. "I... Help..." His eyes closed as his memories stop playing on the monitor. The screens going red as he feels a woman in bird style hold him from behind in a comforting embrace. "Jun... I've failed you... I've failed you all..."_

_"No you didn't, my Owl. I failed you."_

* * *

That voice! He remembers that voice. But from where. He blinks, trying to look back but slender red arms surround him and whoever it is rests her head on top of his helmet.

"You were under my care... But I was too busy resting to help you. To Guide you..."

His eyes widen. That was the voice he heard when he was detonating the God Phoenix. The one that told him he was forgiven and to fly! That it was with him always. He feels her arms tighten around him, holding him tight. "I've never blamed you..."

He struggles, wanting to look around, to see who the owner of the voice was. Then his head flared up in pain.

"My power wasn't meant to be wielded by a human... That's why I had Nambu develop that shell. When grouped as five, my power can manifest..." He stops struggling. "But with the tear in the worlds, I was brought here. I've seen my sister with her avatar, how her Avatar can wield her power with her mind. And I realised as I returned to you. Why couldn't you become my Avatar as well? Your mind was already open to my power, to dip and feel the power I wield."

The interior started to turn red as if the room was catching on fire. He opened his mouth to say something, but she gives him a gentle squeeze. "Our bond is already strong. Almost as strong as her bond with her Avatar. So I tried it. Although you weren't built for that kind of power, your mind has adapted. Remember the Aurora ray?" Ryu blinks, and then blushes. "You mean when I was a cat?"

He could feel her smile. "Yes. When the Condor hit you and caused you to fall into the electronics, your brain got a few zaps ontop of me trying to help you regain your senses AND the fact your mind was already destabilised form the ray's effects. Your brain chemistry completly changed. You became more receptive to my presence and although I wanted to cause some grievous bodily harm to the Condor for hitting you and causing it, this was all the better. Because your mind has been unlocked."

"Uh. Unlocked? Wouldn't that cause brain damage?"

"You won't get brain damage while I'm around. Although you have been getting headaches recently, right? I went through your memories a few moments ago and I can just about sense when my power was unconsciously called up. That's because you're mind is slowly tapping into my power, no matter how great or small. Clearing the gas from around the Hulk." He remembers that scene. How the Hulk leapt out form the gas before it has even start dissipating properly. That was him? "Tipping the plates and lamps. Pulling your ID card to your hand. Your emotions amplify them, the more emotional you get the stronger the flare. It's like a funnel that was blocked and is slowly letting everything through. And now it's time to awaken them all. Call out to my power. Invoke my power Ryu Nakanishi!"

"Why? How?"

She twists him around. He finally gets a good look at her. She was dressed exactly like Jun was when she was in her Bird-style, except her colours were red and blue. Colours, that he associated with the God Phoenix! And not only that, she was on fire. Like Johnny was!

But she made it look good unlike that guy. Although the way she was looking, it was both a look of pride and anger that made him shiver.

"You know how... It is instinct for you... And I want to have some words with a certain creature..."

He frowns, before a picture of the Abomination enters the front of his mind. His face changed expressions from confusion and sadness to blinding rage. Then he he started feeling sensations running through him as she started sinking into him, as if they were melding into one. Then he felt power...

* * *

Unnoticed in the entire fight, was Ryu's fingers starting to spasm. And then it happens. His chest jerks up, causing his body to arch, before he rolls over and begins coughing out blood and gasping for air. The battle momentarily pauses, except for the Hulk smacking Abomination in the face, sending him flying back several feet in the lull of battle. They thought he was dead, Susan was even shocked, having been trying to revive him for the past minute before jumping back as he recovered.

Rising to his knees, he rubs his arm across his mouth, spots his helmet lying on the side and picks it up. Standing up, he puts the helmet back on before looking back at the fight, eyes literally on fire as he scanned everything, the glow from under his visor giving him a menacing look.

Susan, finally getting her wits back, steps around in front of him and grabs his hand, thankful he was alive. "Thank god your, Ah!" She let's go with a cry of pain, shaking her hand as the white glove was tinged red as if it was burnt. In fact, it looked like it was glowing. Looking up at Ryu in confusion, her eyes widen when she sees his eyes.

Was that, fire in his eyes? Since when did Ryu develop Pyrokinesis!?

The remains of the tree he was thrown through nearby, begins shaking as the ground below his feet audibly cracks. Moments later, chunks of pavement and road starts lifting up, pulled upwards from powers unseen except for a hazy, orange glow. That caught everyone's attention. Even the machines looked confused, pausing in their attacking as the pilots stare at the risen Owl.

Then the words spoken next echoed throughout the area despite the noise trying to drown it out. "Kaguku Ninpo..."

Ryu's feet suddenly burst into flames, rapidly travelling up his legs and up his body. As his body is rapidly engulfed in fire, he could feel a song echo in his mind, the flames trailing down his wings before they both flare out as if he was gliding. The flames frame them, before becoming physical enough to look like actual wings.

* * *

**_Miles away, at the Xaviours' Institute for the Gifted._**

Jean clutches her head and cries out, erupting sounds of concern from the group who were silent when the Owl caught on fire. Everyone was confused, but they grew concerned and then scared when flames started erupting from around her form. They all took a step back, Bobby voicing their suspicions. "The Phoenix is back!? I thought it was destroyed! Emma died to do that, didn't she!?"

She looks at the group, before returning her gaze to the screen. In a dual voice, she replies. "He isn't ready and she is too weak... How is he calling up so much of her latent power?"

She wasn't trying to destroy everything. In fact, she looked remarkably controlled. Scott approaches hesitantly. "Jean?" The next word spoken came from the TV, and even this far away from the action, they could feel the power laced into the words...

* * *

**_Back at the Battle_**

"HINOTORI!" He could feel his mind being pressed back, making way for the God Phoenix. Inwardly, he links this feeling to the feeling of invoking this effect with the other members of the team. The gestalt felt like this, with the power of the Phoenix guiding them when they invoke its power. The 5 spreading the stress amongst one another, Ken guiding the Phoenix, Joe's rage and Jun's love tempering the power and homing it at the enemy, Jinpei bringing the calmness to their minds and himself helping her direct her energy and act as the focus for the Phoenix's power. This familiar feeling, he grasped onto it with all his might and felt a trill of happiness echo out. His feet suddenly lift up, the air beginning to swirl around him in a maelstrom of psionic power. The lamppost nearby starts vibrating, before twisting and rising up.

_'Your using too much power, control it Owl!'_ Ryu blinks, before he feels his mind connect with the other force. '_Focus the power, I can give it guidance, but you need to learn how to focus and guide it as well. Why not that green monster that almost killed you?'_ Ryu blinks. '_Yes._ _I need to concentrate. That monster...'_ The flames were spreading around him the swirling air becoming more focussed around him, before it took the form of a bird. With wings spread afar. He looked down.

He could feel everyone, their gaze, their thoughts, their fears and anger. And more, the strands of fate, the connection to existence, how time fluctuates around them, Steve's twist in the time fluctuations Everything was connected. The strings that kept them together, was visible to him. He locked his gaze upon the Abomination, before he felt a spark of fury rise up and swallow him. '_We need to deal with him. He needs to pay.' _Wolverine, having paused upon seeing the transformation, just stares in horror. "The Phoenix..." Steve glances at him and their eyes meet, trading words no one could hear.

The Abomination didn't know what was going on. Wasn't that guy dead? He blinks and stumbles backwards suddenly, feeling one foot start to rise. The Hulk pauses, confusion on his brow as he lowers the fist he was about to send into his face. Moments later, the other foot goes up and he falls onto his back, slowly the rest of his body starts rising with his feet, until he was brought face to face with the flaming owl.

"Mortal... You tried to kill my Owl..." The dual voice was disconcerting to everyone. Ryu, or Fire Ryu, tilted his head to the side as if thinking for a moment. "Actually, you did kill him. Good thing our connection is strong enough to stave of death this time, but the fact remains... You tried to kill him..."

Abomination's eyes widen, before releasing a pained scream. He clutches his body as his scaly plates start falling off. "So now you pay. Do I peel each scale off for what you did? One by one? Or bones? Maybe you'll like to have your stomach contents liquefied. Such physical power your body holds, it's ironic that your helpless before me."

As Abomination cries out in pain, Janet, having enough of this, flies up. She gets as close as she dares to him, before calling out. "Snap out of it! C'mon Owl! Wake up!"

Ryu makes no motion at having heard her, instead continuing his cruel torture of the super villain. The Masters of Evil takes this time to leave, figuring that the reinforcements have arrived, it wouldn't be worth sticking around. Ryu growls out as he causes one nail to fall off before Janet tries again. "Wake up! RYU!"

Blinking, he frowns. He recognises that voice. He turns his head, and sees Janet flying near him, looking, worried? He tilts his head, confusion flushing up as his punishment stops abruptly, although he keeps him held up in the air.

Janet smiles softly "C'mon Ryu. He's bad, but no one deserves that... Put him down..." She was, friend? Memories flaring up of her as she guides him around the Mansion, the teasing about his underwear, how perky and friendly she's been. He grimaces suddenly, hand briefly pressed to the side of his head. '_Our connection is putting strain on your body and mind. We're going to have to drop it soon...'_

_'But we still have something to do before we do...' _Ryu turns slightly to look at the Mechas, his eyes glowing with power as he pushed the headache away.

_'This is going to result in a long nap for you, just to let you know... But I'm sure Nambu would approve.'_

Ryu nods his head, and promptly drops his foe. The monster crumbles to the floor, moaning in pain and looking pitiful but Ryu's focus was now directed at the machines. "Ryu?" He faces the amassed mechanical monstrosities, before glaring suddenly. '_Galactor scum used mecha's as well...'_ He raises one hand up, before positioning his palm towards the machines. They all react, as if knowing their fate was about to be judged and decided. A missile approaches, but disintegrates before getting too close.

The machine closest to him shudders, before it literally starts opening up. The panels flying back and circling around him as he de-constructs them, one by one. The next machine does the same, each individual component separating as he takes each mecha apart. His mind, was keeping to the ISO's ideals in disposable things in safe ways, has the pieces rest on the ground in neat piles. Stacks of metallic sheets, a large pile of screws, even led's was neatly lain around, kept in piles so it would be easy to dispose of.

He smiles at the power, of overflowing energy encompassing him. The mecha's were nothing, just lumps of metal and plastics pieced together with screws and wielding torches. He knew that this was within his realm of control. The God Phoenix was powerful enough to do this. Just a simple tweak of a thought, and dangerous materials was atomised, leaving existence in safety. A few minutes later, the mecha's were all gone, now just piles of material strewn about in neat piles.

He lowers to the floor, suddenly realising he was breathing heavily and his nose and ears was bleeding. '_We used up a lot of power. Expect a long nap my Owl.' _He gives a nod, the flames dying away as his mind strains with the after effects. He feels something familiar touch his mind before gasping.

He stumbles, feeling dizzy and off balance suddenly, drops of blood drips from under his helmet as he finds his vision clouding slightly as everything goes hazy. His eyes finally close and he collapses onto his knees, before falling flat on the floor. He was breathing, but unconscious, having stretched his mind to its limit to the point where it decided to stop everything and just recover. It probably didn't help his body was still recovering from Abomination's beating.

Janet expands and kneels down next to him, checking for a pulse despite him breathing heavily. Sighing in relief upon finding a strong pulse, she looks around at the devastation the mecha's were no problem any more, especially since they were now in neat, organised piles of resources. The Masters of Evil was gone, Bubble Man was bawling on the street while Spiderman looked conflicted. And the other Avengers were busy gathering the AIM and HYDRA members into groups to be arrested, then a thump echoed behind her as the Hulk approaches hesitantly. He glances back at the group, before grunting and then kicks Abomination towards them for arresting, not honestly caring how injured the power house was.

Now that that was sorted, he steps closer and hovers over the two, in an almost protective way. "Is he going to be alright?"

Janet shrugs. "I don't know. I've never seen this happen before."

"It's called the Phoenix..." Wolverine and Captain America both approach. Wolverine looked weary as well as Captain America, although the worry for their youngest member was helping to temper that worry. "It's a cosmic and ancient force that holds immense destructive power. And we thought it was destroyed when Emma sacrificed herself to destroy it. The fact that he has it is worrying."

"So.. Is this bad?" Janet asks tentatively.

"Very bad. The Phoenix helps destroy the future, creating a world of suffering for mutants. We thought it was over with when Emma died while containing it, but still..."

Steve shakes his head. "We've encountered a Time Traveller before. He said I would destroy the world. We managed to avoid that future and I'm absolutely sure we can do the same here, without anyone else dying."

They both turn to the spot where Ryu 'died'. Spiderman was now Webbing Bubble man who was still crying and shouting. Some web to the mouth has him quiet and Spiderman looks like he sighs in relief.

"It's a problem. It'll be on your heads if the future is destroyed because you want to save this kid." Wolverine didn't approve. But it wasn't his call.

Tony arrives a moment later, landing and nodding to Wolverine. "I've just been in contact with your institute. Jean Grey wants to help. Ryu wasn't the only bird to flare up apparently."

Wolverine's eyes widen at that. "Jean..."

Giving a shrug, he looks down at the unconscious Owl, before Steve coughs. Blinking, Steve points behind them and they all look back. Reed Richards was talking to the press while the rest of the Fantastic Four escorted the new prisoners to the police vans. The street was now unblocked, since the Thing took the time to do so. Reed was glancing at the group, worry and a plea for help obvious on his face. Tony sighs before shrugging. "Fine. I'll deal with the paparazzi. Just, get him to a hospital or something."

Steve nods his head as Tony heads over to help Reed with the press. Despite appearances though, it was the Hulk that picked him up. An eye brow raised was the only question to this, but the Hulk still answers with a grunt. "I like Green." That made them confused, but Ryu somehow smiles in his sleep. They move out to the QuinJet, before launching off and heading to a nearby hospital to get them all looked over.

* * *

**_Hospital_**

Ryu was resting in the bed, completely out of contact with the world. Sitting nearby, Hank and Janet sit nearby, watching. "Do you think he'll be ok Hank?"

He shrugs. "I'm not entirely sure Jan. Physically; he's recovered at a remarkable speed. Mentally, I'm not sure. Having that much power flare up isn't healthy, but this hasn't happened before. At least, nothing I can get the appropriate research for..."

The sound of the door opening distracts the two, and they watch as Steve peeks in. "Any changes?"

They both shake their head in a negative. Steve sighs, before opening the door. There was a guy standing next to him, and from his wild hair style and posture, he was confident. "The Phoenix Force is a power out of this world. It's a psionic entirety, so it wouldn't really hurt him physically."

The two blink. "Wolverine..."

He grunts an affirmative, whilst Steve rests a hand on his shoulder. "He's an Avenger. If you know anything that can help..."

Wolverine grunts out again. "There isn't much to do. The Phoenix force is powerful. Damn near wiped out the entire institute in a single blast. But I understand where you're coming from..." He sighs. "We could barely bring ourselves to hurt Jean when she unleashed it again. Emma died to save the world, and I'm just worried that this thing is just jumping from body to body. Poor Kid..."

"That isn't the same Phoenix you fought against Logan..." He spins, eyes catching the Green eyes and red hair of his fellow X-man, the bearer of the Phoenix force and Psionic force, Jean Grey. "This one is younger. The Phoenix within me actually cares for her like a sister." She steps in, followed closely by Tony.

"Anyone think we should get a bigger room? It's getting a little cramped here." Ah, Tony, the ice breaker.

Jean manages to squeeze herself past the others, before standing next to his bed. "He's so young... Yet, he's been through so much."

That attracted everyone's attention. Again. "We haven't told you anything? How did you know?"

Logan snorts. "Jean's a Psion. Telekinesis, Telepathy. The Works."

She shakes her head. "Although Logan is right, that's not how I know. Our Phoenix's, have met before... A little over 2 weeks ago in fact."

Tony blinks, doing the maths. "Wait, that's about the same time he arrived!?"

She nods, grimaces and speaks in a tone that was mostly unsure. "Yes, his, Phoenix contacted mine and we helped pull him into this dimension? Mine is telling me all sorts of things; it's hard to put into words."

Tony smacks his forehead. "So that's what's missing from the simulations. Some Cosmic juice. Great. That's a lot harder to get than plutonium."

Janet blinks. "Wait, let me get this straight. He's in this world because your Phoenix pulled him over? Because, his called for yours to do so? Why?"

She doesn't respond, instead she rests two delicate fingers against his temple and sighs. "His mind is stretched taut. His mind wasn't built to use that much psionic energy in such a short burst of time. Although... His mind hasn't been torn asunder. It's malleable. Interesting."

"Um, is something wrong?" Janet sounded hesitant.

"A normal human doesn't have the capabilities of wielding the Phoenix Force for lengthy periods of time. The fact that he could muster up a minutes worth shows that his mind is capable and adjusted. A mind this free is usually a sign of a Psion..." She lets her telepathy tap against his own mental energies and she calls out. '_Ryu?'_ She listens for a reply, but there was none. "Yet, Cerebro didn't detect that he was a mutant. So we're at a loss about how he developed all this power..."

The assembled group look at her in confusion. There was a cough at the door and a man with red glasses enters, looks around and frowns. "Great, you brought Cyke..."

Jean grins. "Hush Logan. Scott wanted to be nearby encase something happened. It's ju..." '_Hello?'_ She pauses suddenly, not expecting a mental reply. She looks at Ryu's body and frowns, wondering if there was a lag between his mind and processing it.

"Jean?" That was echoed by both Logan and Scott, while Steve asked "Ms Grey?"

"Strange..." Now that she thinks about it, the voice wasn't male at all. '_Who is this?'_

She felt a presence stir in her mind, making a connection. Then a burst of warmth. '_So you're my sister's avatar! Hello there.'_

Jean blinks and stares down, suddenly connecting who was speaking to her and attempting to suppress the fear in her mind at this. '_So it's true. The Phoenix force exists within Ryu as well. How is this happening? I thought mine was the only one in existence. And most of its power was destroyed when Emma sacrificed her life to stop it.'_

_'Ah, we will return in power eventually, but I'll fully admit that I may have been a bit hasty in my decision to wipe out everything. But to be fair, you were being attacked. How else would you stop an attack?'_ She blinks. Her Phoenix force was suddenly active again and... Did she have to explain why blowing up everything wasn't a good idea to her Phoenix force?

_'Anyway, back to my Owl and me. He can use some psionic power, but that's because certain circumstances has opened up the mental pathways that a normal person has sealed throughout their entire lives. I suppose being close to me for so long and those circumstances helped open them. So, he can wield my power. Not for long but he can do so. But he used too much of my power too soon and he's kind of out of it. I'm trying to bring him back but he's sleeping too deep for me to wake him up and I feel like something else is keeping him stuck that way. Either that, or he's being stubborn and wants to sleep.' _Well, his Phoenix Force was a lot friendlier than hers.

_'Hey! I take offence to that. I'm very friendly!' _Did, her Phoenix just pout?

_'Didn't you almost destroy the world?'_ Was Ryu's Phoenix Force's comeback. _'... I had a good reason...'_

_'Really?'_ Inevitable deadpan voice. Check. At least His Phoenix Force was more peaceful and understood that blowing up everything was bad. Still...

_'Can, we get back on topic please?'_ She rubs her temple. Sisters were a pretty good description to describe them, simply because they were bickering. Cosmic powered entities, bickering... The timid sorry's from both Phoenix force's just made things weirder as they both go quiet for a moment.

"Jean!?" Someone shouted into her ear and since she wasn't being talked to mentally, she heard it loud and clear.

She jumps, looks around and pats her chest. "Don't scare me like that! What's wrong with you! Shouting in my ear!?"

Janet jerks back a bit, frowns and then places her hands on her hips. "Well excuse me for being worried! You've been standing there for the past 5 minutes doing nothing but staring at him! What was I supposed to think!?"

"Jean? Is everything ok?" Logan sounded a tad concerned. For good reason too, with all this Phoenix Force business, he was worried that another apocalypse was coming.

She rounds around and points at the large group. "Ok! Everyone except those who _need_ to be here, out! If I'm going to be bringing him back from this coma I'll need peace and quiet."

Most of the avenger's nod their head, trusting in the resident telepath. Logan gives a concerned look, before slowly following them out. Scott crosses his arms and stubbornly stays by the door. She just sighs and brings a chair over to sit near him. "I'm probably going to go fiery, but provided I'm not destroying anything, it should be safe."

"JEAN!"

"Scott,, they're bickering like sisters! _Sisters!_ They're going to be too busy to destroy things. Well, that and his Phoenix is really worried about him. I'm doing this Scott, if only because if he's conscious he can help suppress his own phoenix force if his goes out of control."

"But..."

"Get some Aspirin and water. I have a feeling once this is done, we're both going to be needing them."

He sighs, finally relenting or knowing when to give up. As he goes out, she turns to the other occupant that didn't leave. "Hey, he's a friend! I'm not leaving him. Besides, what if you need someone to wake you both up? My stingers should do the job right?"

Jean just sighs. "Fine. Just, don't shoot unless needed."

She gives a nod in agreement as Jean sits down next to his bed. Taking a deep breath, she leans over him and places her fingers against his temples. She closes her eyes and concentrates...

* * *

"Bout time you got here"

Jean opened her eyes and blinks at the figure in front of her. Covered in flames with a Phoenix shape and dressed in a costume similar to Ryu's, she had a skirt that only went down to her mid-thigh thoguh. The colour scheme of Red and Blue tweaked a memory.

"Maybe you should make the skirt longer. She's staring." Jean blinks and looks behind her. She gapes at her twin. Covered in flames and dressed in green and gold, she gives a grin and places her hands on her hips.

"Ok. I'm getting a little freaked out right now..." Jean was getting a bit uncomfortable, being surrounded by two Phoenix's. Then again, this was the mind, so she should just adapt. Still, two cosmic powered entities that could destroy everything with a thought... In Ryu's mind...

"Oh, don't be like that. I wouldn't hurt you. For one thing, you're going to help my Owl. For another, she probably wouldn't allow it." The, Ryu's Phoenix gestures at her Phoenix force. Before shrugging. "If you want, just call me the God Phoenix. That's the name of the Ship I used to inhabit before snuggling into his mind."

"_God_ Phoenix? Presumptuousness much?"

"Hey, they came up with the name. I'm rolling with it. So, he's this way." She turns and walks down a corridor, both Jean and her Phoenix looking at each other, before following.

It took a few minutes of walking, before they come across a large blue and red warship. The two Jeans blink, before whistling. G. Phoenix gives a grin. "That's the God Phoenix ship! Beautiful isn't she? C'mon, he's on board." She jumps up, wings flaring out and lands on the roof.

Jean and her Phoenix levitate up to join her as she approaches a bubble of glass. It opens up as they approach. She stands in the middle, and gestures with her head for them to join her. They both step on and the bubble closes. The bottom then lowers into a ships control room. The lights flickering and the screens flashing catching their attention, before the G. Phoenix approaches the front seats. A familiar helmet is in one of them, looking like he was taking a nap.

"See, he's right here. Nothing I do will wake him up."

"Are you sure? Did you try"

"Did that."

"Then"

"Did that to. And Ice didn't work. Neither did yelling, poking, holding his nose or pinching."

Were those two telepathic with one another as well. "How about water?"

G. Phoenix shrugs. "That was the second thing I tried. The first was slapping his face. He likes sleeping, but he's never this difficult to wake up."

Jean approaches as her Phoenix whispers something to the G. Phoenix, who blushes and nods her head. "Can you both stop whispering. There has to be something we could try?"

G. Phoenix blushes a bit. "I've tried virtually everything. Nothing... And Yes, I did try that. Not the whole way, but I started. Still wouldn't wake up."

The last bit made Jean look at her Phoenix in confusion, who grins cheekily. "I'll... Tell you when you're older."

She blanches. "Too much information!" She shivers.

"It's a natural fact of life, of Creation! How can that be too much information?" J. Phoenix exclaims.

G. Phoenix flushes some more. "And private between me and My Owl. So, moving on and away from my love life."

Jean sighs, before stepping close to the slumbering teen. She lifts his helmet off and brushes his messy hair out of the way, before focussing. "Ryu? Can you hear me? Wake up!"

G. Phoenix shuffles over to a console and rests her hand against it. The entire thing lights up and the screen show a wolf-like machine approaching. "This is why I think he won't respond. He felt the Science Ninja team, briefly. He's been mentally trying to grab that connection again and has shut himself out doing so..."

J. Phoenix huffs. "If that's all it was, why didn't you tell me? I can help reopen the way back to your world if you want me to." Both Jean and G. Phoenix shake their heads, then stop as they spot each other's motion.

They both blink, before explaining their responses. "Well, I think I'll rather he was conscious before returning to our world. I don't want Galactor to find his unconscious body..."

"I'm more worried about the fact that his psionic abilties are completly uncontrolled at the moment. I'm actually suppressing his powers so nothing else would start shaking."

"Oh! So that was you who is helping to suppress them! Thanks! I was suppressing the powers myself but I was probably letting a bit trickle through while dealing with this situation." G. Phoenix exclaims, a smile on her face.

"Ok, those are two valid reasons. So, how about this. I'll send our mental spirits into their world? Just to see what's happening there? Is that better?"

The G. Phoenix grins. "Yes! That'll be brilliant! Did you hear that Ryu! We can take a look back home and see how everything is!"

Ryu mumbles a bit and turns slightly, snorting out and brings both arms under his head to get comfortable. J. Phoenix blinks at that. "... Wow... I don't think even that ice guy on your team is like that when sleeping... Aww... Look at him. That's adorable!" He was now smiling, curling up in the seat and drooling slightly as he tries curling up into a ball.

G. Phoenix blushes, wipes his mouth with her arm, and proceeds to start shaking him vigorously and enthusiastically. "Wake up! We have a chance to see the others!" Maybe a bit too enthusiastically since he was now wide awake and trying to stop the shaking. "Ngh... Stop that! Who're you?"

Jean blinks. "Ok, that's... weird. And did I just sweat-drop?"

J. Phoenix shrugs. "He's waking up at least."

She twitches, before his eyes lights up in recognition. His eyes then widens, before fumbling in his seat in an attempt to stand. He ends up slipping out of the seat and falling onto the floor, much to their amusement.

"Gah! Oof" Rubbing his helmet free head, he looks up and blinks. "So, it wasn't a dream..." She gives a smile, before holding a hand out for him to hold. Once done, she pulls him up until he was standing, where she then wrapped her arms around him and hugs him tight. "Guh, Where. Why am I in the God Phoenix?" His expression went from confused to concerned.

Jean clears her throat, bringing his attention to her. "You used the Phoenix Force, so I was called in to help you wake up since you were busy sleeping. I have a bit of experience with that power so I thought I'll lend my support."

Oh. That made sense. He suddenly blinks. "I heard something about seeing home again?"

J. Phoenix nods her head. "I could send you back home, but Jean pointed out that you've developed Telepathy and it may be a better idea to gain a handle on that power before returning. I know Jean had hell when her Telepathy kicked in."

Ryu nods his head, quite eagerly. "I just want to see if the others' are alright!"

She sighs, before bringing her hands out, pauses, then glances at Jean. "You may want to tell the one's out there that you will both be going fiery." Jean blinks, before nodding. Closing her eyes, she leaves his mind.

* * *

She opens her eyes and stretches.

"Jean! Is he going to be OK? You started glowing every now and then. Was that good? Cyclops looked like he was about to have an aneurysm from the way he was ranting about the Phoenix."

Jean sighs, and places a hand on Janet. "I'm going back in in a moment, but I just came out to let you know I'm going to go fiery and to not attack me. And a drink." She reaches for the glass of water nearby and drains half of it off. After sighing, she places it down and notes the pills nearby. "How long was I out for?"

"About 10, 15 minutes." Was her response.

Jean blinks, before sighing. "Well, let them know I'm going hot. See you soon."

She returns her fingers against his temple, closes her eyes and delves back in.

* * *

"Done? Ready?" J. Phoenix was tapping her foot impatiently, Ryu was grinning excitedly and G. Phoenix was glancing around nervously. "Well then, C'mere sister. If we do it together, you should get the feel for it so you can do this yourself later on. That way I won't have to tear another hole in the dimensional barrier and throw you in."

G. Phoenix nods her head and approaches J. Phoenix. They both stand facing one direction, before holding one hand out in front of them and focus their power. The air in front of them distorts, before stabilising. Once done, the G. Phoenix whoops in delight while J. Phoenix frowns. When asked what was wrong, she replies, as if unsure. "Something feels... Wrong? Not, bad, just, wrong. It feels like, I don't know, you order a Vanilla Ice cream and you get a trace of strawberry in it. It's safe though, don't worry about it."

Giving a nod, they each enter the portal, ready to visit the world Ryu and the G. Phoenix came from...

* * *

**_A/N: _**_Wolverine and the Xmen is the inspiration for this. Mainly because the Avengers: Earth's mightiest hero's wiki lists it as a related show. So I've rolled with it for now. _

_Yes, I've brought back the Phoenix Force into Jean Grey (It's power was severely weakened when Emma sacrificed herself to contain it) and the Phoenix force is completely OOC (I'm rolling along that it is naive. So someone attacks you, you set them on fire or blow them up (because she can totally do that). It just happened that a psionic attack felt like a close range thing and had no obvious hints about where it was, so the best solution was to blow everything around her up to protect her. Now that she thinks about it and had it explained to her, It may not of been the best plan. But hey, when your a being of pure cosmic power capable of ending entire worlds with a thought, blowing up everything within a mile radius IS pretty tame..._

_Next chapter is going to be a link to the Gatchaman dimension. Because it's important to see what's happened in that world since Ryu's been missing. And despite it being just shy of 2 in-fic weeks, a LOT has happened. And a little tip, the first fic is tied into the next chapter. ^^_


	13. Fight On! Gatchaman!

**_Disclaimer:_**_ I don't own Gatchaman or Avengers. If I did, I would change nothing. And no, not even to make this fic real._

**_AN: _**_And now we get to see what's been happening in the Gatchaman Universe. In the first fic, we saw the God Phoenix 'tweak' the flow of time to suit her needs. The consequences are brought to light here, despite her noble intentions. Instead of being missing for around 2 weeks, it's been almost 2 years. More than enough time for the original Gatchaman to pass, as well as Gatchaman 2 and we're now into a part of Gatchaman Fighter._

**_WARNING! THIS CHAPTER WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS TO GATCHAMAN, GATCHAMAN 2 AND GATCHAMAN FIGHTER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED_**

**_This chapter just describes the events that have occurred in these shows. If you want to skip this to not have spoilers, then the main thing you should take from this is the introduction to Ryu's replacement, Selena Roma, the Kestrel and new G5, time was fixed since the God Phoenix messed around with it in the first fic so what was two weeks to Ryu, was two years to the Gatcha-verse. Meaning that at the end of this chapter, when Ryu's consciousness returns to the marvel-verse, the Gatcha-verse would be a few episodes into Gatchman Fighter._**

* * *

_Previously..._

_The God Phoenix nods her head and approaches Jean's Phoenix force. They both stand facing one direction, before holding one hand out in front of them and focus their power. The air in front of them distorts, before stabilising. Once done, the G. Phoenix whoops in delight while Jean's Phoenix frowns. When asked what was wrong, she replies, as if unsure. "Something feels... Wrong? Not, bad, just, wrong. It feels like, I dunno, you order a Vanilla Ice cream and you get a trace of strawberry in it. It's safe though, don't worry about it."_

_Giving a nod, they each enter the portal, ready to visit the world Ryu and the G. Phoenix came from..._

* * *

They appear, floating in the air and slightly incorporeal Jean's Phoenix then blinks, before frowning and looks around. "... This isn't right. Time isn't flowing normally?"

The G. Phoenix blinks and nods. "Now that I've been out of this dimension and back here, it does feel faster in comparison. Oh... Maybe those times I tweaked time to bring the team together did this?"

Jean's Phoenix rounds on her, eyes wide. "You altered time! Are you crazy! Doing it risks causing time to progress at a different rate as the rest of the universe. How many times did you do it!?"

Ryu was also looking at her, wide eyed. "Bring the team together?"

G. Phoenix blushes. "Um... about three times? And don't mind that Ryu-Kun. heh heh."

"... Yeah... Time's accelerated." She sighs. "Let me fix this."

Ryu and Jean look at each other, feeling a little out of it. "Does, this happen often?"

She gives a hesitant look. "... To be honest. This is the first time. Then again, weird stuff happens to the X, whoa!" She stumbles, feeling a wash of power flare out. Ryu also stumbles, falling onto his backside despite hovering in the air, both of them looking with wide eyes at Jean's Phoenix.

G. Phoenix just snorts at that display. "Show off... But it's been fixed. Heh, whoops? Well, at least we're sorted now right?"

Jean's Phoenix sighs. "Well. This is your world. Let's see if you can find the time stream that shows the past." Both Phoenix's begin floating around, reaching their hands out and making noises as they were examining things they couldn't see.

Ryu glances at Jean. "Has, she always been able to do this?" The shake of her head was a negative. He didn't feel that much better.

Jean's Phoenix then grins. "Got it! Ok Ryu. Show me the last memory you have of this world. Then I can pull us to that moment and we can watch what happens there."

He blinks, a little lost. The G. Phoenix floats near him, grasps his hands and whispers. "Just, remember the last moments. We'll go from there." He finally nods his head, before closing his eyes. He remembers the mission they ran, the panic and fear over losing everything and everyone, of failing the team and the world.

The air distorts and the colour seems to mute a bit, and they feel a tugging as they suddenly appear at the mountain side. Or, at least it looked like a mountain side. The darkness on the ground and the state of the area was like something big exploded here a long time ago. Ryu glances around, before shivering. The world then goes Grey before everything starts moving the opposite to how it was supposed to move. After a brief time, everything restarts, showing the valley as it looked before the explosion. Then they hear the engines of something powerful soaring overhead.

Spinning in the spot, they all see the God Phoenix, soaring in the sky and followed by a missile and small ships. Ryu brings his hand to his mouth and bite his finger. They watch as the ship dips and weaves, avoiding the smaller missiles whilst trying to shake off their pursuers. Suddenly, the Ship banks towards the mountain and launches a missile at the mountain side. Speeding after the missile, the ship pulls up as the missile collides with the mountainside, causing a large explosion as the ship flies over the mountainside. He closes his eyes, knowing what was about to happen. They turn away from the scene and towards the large wolf mecha that was in the distance. As they approached it, the mountain explodes, creating a large mushroom cloud and vaporising a large portion of the natural rock.

Jean was staring at the cloud of dust. "Was that... a Nuke?"

They both nod their head, continuing their flight to the other members of the team. They finally arrive, just as Ken bangs his hand on a metal door and Joe punching a goon in the stomach. Jun and Jinpei were taking out another group of goons, her yo-yo and his bolas tripping up two who fell and smacked their heads together. Jean blinks and stares at Jinpei in concern, before turning to Ryu, mouth open to say something. The tip of the tail then flies off, most likely housing Berg Katse. Ryu growls as the others sigh in despair at having failed again.

They then turn to the explosion and wince. Joe looks up through the window, sighing. "Well, that's going to be a problem..."

Ken brings his bracelet up to his mouth and calls for him. "Ryu, are you Ok? We've taken down the mecha and waiting for rendezvous." Several moments of silence and Ken starts looking concerned. "Hey, Big guy? You're alright... right? Ryu? Answer me!"

They watch as Ken starts to sound more and more panicky. Jun and Joe were getting paler as they start realising something was up while Jinpei started trying to contact Ryu with his own communicator. "C'mon Ryu! This isn't a good time to prank us!"

Jean and Ryu felt tears building up as they grew more desperate, before Ken stops. Tears in his eyes, he suddenly kneels down and slams his fist into the mecha, a shout of "Dammit!" reverberated throughout the area. Jun collapses to her knees, sobbing while Jinpei rushes into her arms, bawling out that Ryu had to be alive. Joe was standing there, shaking in rage, before he cries out loud, rushes to the door Katse went through and start punching it. They all pause when Nambu calls, asking them for a status report. It's Ken, tears in his eyes, who answers. Telling him it was an Ambush and Ryu is not responding.

Ryu couldn't take it anymore. He rushes over and tries to grab Ken's shoulders, but falls through him. Falling through both Ken and the Mecha, he lands on the ground with an oof. Jinpei's cries grow louder as Ken gives the news that he suspects Ryu to be dead, and unable to take it anymore, Ryu slams his fist in to the ground with a curse. He feels arms wrap around him and finds both Jean and his Phoenix enveloping him in a hug. They stay like that for a while, before Jean's Phoenix pokes her head through the roof. "They're starting to leave."

Ryu nods his head, gathers his strength and leaves his spot. He spots the team, a little ways away, waiting for something. Jun was holding Jinpei while Joe and Ken were exchanging words. He joins them along with Jean, sitting on the ground nearby. He winces as he hears exactly how Joe will pay Galactor back while Jean looks more and more disturbed at hearing his ramblings.

An hour later, a plane lands nearby and it opens to let Nambu exit. He approaches the team and sighs. Several members of the ISO come out to begin checking the area, before one of them backs away from ground zero. They hear his report to Nambu after the team was ushered on. "The area is lightly radioactive. But the closer we get, the greater the Radiation. If G5 survived the explosion, he would most likely be dead from the radioactivity itself."

"We'll do a sweep then, stick to the edge of the radius. Once we have an idea how large it is, we can triangulate the explosion site and have some people examine the site. I won't give up hope just yet..."

Ryu smiles, before settling himself down nearby with the team as they do a sweep of the area. They then return to Crescent Coral base. As they follow them, Ryu finally speaks up. "How... Long is this going to be?"

Jean's Phoenix sighs. "We're watching these at a faster rate. So based on how quickly we're going through these, as well as how much of it there is, I'll say we'll be done in a few hours. That should be enough to cover almost 2 years. Right?"

Ryu stumbles as the scene changes to the Crescent Coral base. "Two YEARS! I've been gone for that long! It's been barely two weeks!"

"Like I said earlier. Time was accelerated. Almost two weeks to you is almost two years to them".

They watch as the group assembles. They look like a mess, but Nambu still speaks to them. About not giving up since Ryu wouldn't want that (Damn straight!). But they're down a pilot. Only three other people scored decently with the flight simulator for the prototype God Phoenix, and he's having one of them join the team as a temporary G5. Jinpei bursts out at this, claiming G5 is still taken and that it's not available for anyone. Ken tries to calm him down but he's adamant about that. When the person is finally brought in, Jinpei takes one look at her, then flees. Jun apologies and runs after him. They are introduced to the newest member of the team. The new G5, The Kestrel. Selena Roma.

Ryu blinks, before frowning, looking over the brown hair, the pale complexion and her black and purple Birdstyle was similar to Joe's in a sense, although he couldn't help but feel a little strange about her. "I've seen her before..."

Both Phoenix's blink, before staring at him in confusion. "Really? When?"

Ryu nods. "Yeah. I had a dream about her, Ken, Jun and Jinpei a while ago in their civvies. Although Joe was missing, those four were still there. Weird... She looks exactly as I pictured her. How did I even get such an accurate idea on what she looks like?" She wasn't a bad pilot though. A little shaky in some places but pretty acceptable in others, clearly capable of taking the team to and from missions and even in piloting the new warship on the attack. Shame they scrapped the Phoenix, although I suppose it was a good thing. That chicken ship couldn't be called a God Phoenix simply because it was nothing like the God Phoenix.

They both look at each other. "Hey, I was still sleeping! I didn't do it!" G. Phoenix exclaimed in defence, before adopting a thoughtful pose. "Although with your latent telepathy building up over the weeks, you may have been able to peek into the world without you knowing... Has something happened recently that was mentally stressful that would also make you think really hard about this dimension?"

Ryu blinks, then laughs. "Yeah. There was this one time a few days ago... I did explain to Captain America a bit more about this world. I, had a problem earlier that day and it was really stressful and had extra training to suppress some of my instincts." The two Phoenix's glance at each other again, before exchanging unspoken words before nodding. "I, kinda forgot I was in their world and encountered HYDRA goons... They're... startling similar to Galactor Goons..." he admitted. "I, may have... reacted badly..." G. Phoenix gives him a hug as Jean's Phoenix explains to her what this Galactor has done. Her horrified expression explained exactly how she felt about it.

Ryu continues watching the events intently. Jinpei obviously didn't like her, Jun was trying her best to accept her whilst Joe and Ken were, apparently indifferent about it, although they both weren't being supportive about it either. Joe didn't even try to flirt with her, which went to show how much his apparent death shook him. Now he felt guilty. Even though he was in an astral projection form, it didn't mean they could interact with the world. This entire experience was both the most painful thing he's ever had to do (including having to prioritise the team over his own father, disappointing his entire family and even failing to help the team most of the time), yet at the same time, it was a good thing so he could get everything out of mind.

Then Jinpei started to create a fake Crescent Coral base, which made him laugh. Selena was trying to be supportive but Jinpei didn't really appreciate it. He loved the kid, but he was being a bit too mean right now. They needed good teamwork to survive against Galactor and his attitude wasn't helping. Turns out the plan did work, and they were going around destroying the various bases they were led too. Then Katse found out that he was being followed and set the mecha to self-destruct while escaping... again. She managed to save Jinpei from this and it was through that event that he finally started accepting her.

Then they witnessed Galactor finally locating and destroying the Crescent base. He watches in horror as Katse's plan is successful, although the team did manage to escape with Nambu, it was still a devastating blow to the teams' morale, which was already hammered away by his apparent death. Selena showed her improvement with handling the Phoenix by managing to get it into the sinking base. He did whistle in appreciation. Even he would of had a tough time getting the ship to enter the base like that.

That's when he found that Joe was having problems. He watched in dawning horror as Joe started getting more and more problems with his sight, before he was captured by Galactor. Jean was watching them torture Joe in horror, how they beat him up, how he fought back and almost killed Katse with a feather Shuriken but missed. The timeline was showing them important events, but it was disconcerting when everything shifts around to a new location. G. Phoenix was quiet the entire time, a hard look on her face as she watches the Condor suffer.

He eventually escapes and sends the others into the base to deal with Katse before apparently dying. Ken gives him his boomerang before descending into the base. They watch as Katse commits suicide and how the machine that was risking the world was about to destroy it. Ken and Jun were arguing about Ken wanting to go into the machine, before it just stops. Blinking, the two psions and phoenix's all peak into the machinery, before bursting into laughter at how Joe's feather shuriken got wedged into the machinery.

Leaving the base, Joe's body was missing. That hurt everyone. Ryu was especially concerned. With him 'dying', the loss of the Crescent base and then Joe dying, they're morale was at an all-time low and they were all really hurting. He tried looking around for him, but without a clue on where to go, he floated aimlessly about before the world shifted to the next event.

Several months of peace later as the team was starting to drift, they were brought back together. About how rumours of Galactor cells has arisen on an island and they needed to investigate. Joe's replacement was a jerk, simple as that, but that jerk-iness was completely shoved to the side upon seeing what happened next. Both he and G. Phoenix were frozen stiff upon spotting the new ship, this 'New God Phoenix'. They just stared in horror as it flew off, even when the scene shifted to their location, they refused to move. Ryu eventually whimpers out. "... My baby..." A hug of condolence was given, Jean patting him on his shoulder. "At least they have an auto pilot... right? Ken, Jun and Jinpei think it's a big thing... right?"

When they follow them to Galactor's next base, they were shocked when Ryu collapses to his knees. Concerned questions were met with a sob as G. Phoenix envelops him in a hug, having figured out why. "Even after our deaths, they're still around! We disappeared for no reason!"

"No! They are resilient, but we can take them out. This is one of their ways of winning. By hiding the heart and just sending out heads. They're like a Hydra, cut off one head and another grows to take its place. We need to strike at the heart..." Jean joins the hug. All that heartache, the loss of both himself and Joe and they're reward was that the enemy came back, just as strong as ever.

They watch as they get taken through more battles, about the hidden base under the desert. Nambu reveals the condor machine that was capable of going down and Ken was about to go down himself when Joe re-joins! That made him cheer! Nothing could keep Joe down. They needed an old face to join. And this was perfect

During one of the many events, Selena was sent out to investigate some strange weather patterns cropping up. There she met this old guy who ended up giving her his harpoon, the means to defeat Galactor after they disable the new Phoenix with magnetic waves. Although Ryu and Jean found out that he was a cyborg, but personally, Ryu didn't care since Joe was Joe, no matter what was done to him.

Ken even managed to get another girl to fall for him. Joe did talk to her for a bit but she was eventually let down. Although they didn't manage to save the target, which turned out to be an observatory. That was a bit bad. But he didn't know where the group needed to go so it didn't matter, although personally, Ryu would have tried helping the girl out but he supposes with him not being there, only Jun would have let her down gently. A while later Selena followed Joe into the desert, but got caught by Galactor's mecha that created another dimension. The team did manage to save her, but she was beginning to get suspicious of Joe.

Selena and Jinpei, who have steadily been bonding, investigated some UFO sightings. Although Jinpei got kidnapped along with a group of kids, he still managed to help save the day.

A new member of the ISO gets introduced a while later, a Dr Pandora. Sure, she helps stop the new leader of Galactor (who even Jean laughed upon spotting her. Gel Sadra looks hilarious, he'll even admit that) by using a machine to combat a mental assault, but did she really have to shoot Nambu to do so? Still, Joe was revealed to be a Cyborg to the group. That was shocking to them.

Several months afterwards, he watches as Nambu gets a message. Ryu stumbles and gasps in shock when Nambu tells the others what was on it. Jean asks what is it, which Ryu finally gathers the voice to say that it's his father that sent the message. Ken decides to go to his father personally, before finding out various suspicious things that had him call the others to investigate. He watches as his Father talks to Ken. He could hear the sadness in his father's and brothers voices and again, he ran to hold them, cursing when he falls through again. He sits down as he watches them get kidnapped while Ken infiltrates the base. He huddles on the beach, not joining this time.

As the ship blows up, Jean sits next to him, asking if he was Ok. His reply was to suddenly hic-cup, sob and then grab onto her and begins crying. She looks up, eyes reflecting sadness. "This is becoming torturous. Must we watch this all!?"

Ryu finally shakes his head, letting go and attempts to regain his composure. "No, I'm ok. Just, needed a bit of release... I, didn't realise how much it hurt seeing my father be so close yet so far away." They watch as the group returns to the shore. His father was kicking up a fuss while Seiji was trying to calm him down. They looked a little worse for wear, but they had a light in their eyes. Once the group was splitting up, he stood next to his father who was saying farewell to the team, before he suddenly pulls Ken into a hug. Confused, he feels more tears prickle out when he hears his father's statement. "I wish you could have met my first son, he would have made you face palm at all those lame and corny jokes he used to try. But he had a good heart and when he helped out, you appreciated the help. I just hope we find him one day... It's been so long since he got lost at sea... But he's my son, a Fisherman from the sea. If anyone can survive for so long out there, it'll be him."

Ryu grins. Good old Ken. Despite not knowing what happened to him, he still held onto the hope that he was still alive and passed on that hope to his father. Well, he wasn't going to disappoint them.

Although he was a bit awed when they started space missions. He would have loved to fly to outer space. Jean gives a shrug besides him and comments that it's overrated. A few more visions later and they watch as Ken is revealed to be Gatchaman to Galactor. Ryu winces at this.

They watch the scene where Joe was on his quest to destroy Sosai X, how the leader of Galactor, Gel Sadra is the daughter of Pandora and then eventually, the point where Ken's weapon narrowly saves Joe from blowing up with X.

And then another enemy comes in. This one actually manages to destroy the new God Phoenix (he still wasn't sure how he should feel. Neither did G. Phoenix.) The new machines was new and he could see how vastly superior they were over the New God Phoenix. But with his eyes opened up to other types of tech and seeing the QuinJet, he could honestly say that they could be heavily improved. Then he saw Ken's Lightsaber. OR rather, it was called the Gatcha Fencer, but honestly, it was a Lightsaber. Ah, the spoils of Star Wars.

The Hyper shoot, the new way Ken takes out the mecha's on his own, has him worried. All that power flowing through him, it was like when he used the God Phoenix's power to take out all those Mecha's. Then, rather abruptly, the world returns its normal hue. Jean's Phoenix, having remained quiet the entire time, speaks up. "We are now synchronised with time again. A day here is a day on our world. But I see why you formed this team now."

G. Phoenix nods, having reigned in her emotions. "That's right. This, Z as he calls himself now, wants to destroy this world. I can't let that happen. I did not foresee all this happening. Leaving this dimension must have altered reality to cause this, but at least they're still fighting."

Ryu looks up, determination sparkling in his eyes. "I need to master this telepathy then. I need to return home. I have to help the others. And I have all these new skills I can use. All these new ideas I can implement. I'll have to have Tony show me how to build some things, but once I memorise that, I can help create things that'll stop Galactor, once and for all."

They all grin, before Jean's Phoenix reopens the portal back home. Ryu takes one last look around. "I promise you all, that when I come back, we'll stop Galactor for good." He enters the portal, arriving back in his mind. He blinks when he realises the place was a lot more active than when they left. G. Phoenix whistles. "Your mind has recovered. That trip was good for you it seems."

Ryu grins. "Yeah. I know. I feel better knowing they're still alive. It means that when I return, I can help kick Galactor's ass!"

He gets lightly thwacked on the back of his head by Jean. "Language Ryu."

He rubs his head and whines out as G. Phoenix chuckles. "I get enough reprimands by Janet, you too?"

* * *

**_A/N: _**_I may not have explained the events in Gatchaman 2 that well. I chalk that up to the fact that there is a script I read while watching it as well as using the wiki entries on the episodes to figure out what was going on. So, yeah._

_Changes have been dotted here and there. I mainly focussed on the ending and beginnings of the 3 shows as well as the episodes that was focussed (or mostly so) on Ryu._

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. Expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while I shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	14. G5 Ryu the Horned Owl, Avenger, X-man?

_**Disclaimer:**__ I don't own Gatchaman, Avengers or Wolverine and the Xmen._

_**AN: **__To those that skipped the previous chapter because of the spoiler warning. You're now safe. The main thing you would of missed was the introduction of Ryu's Replacement in the Gatchaman universe. Selena Roma, the Kestrel and new G5. Oh, and that the Gatcha-verse wasn't moving in sych with the marvel one so what was two weeks to Ryu was almost 2 years for the others. Time was fixed and everything is now moving in synchronisation with this universe, beginning a few episodes into Gatchaman Fighter._

* * *

_New speech means a new ways of speaking! So..._

_"Blah blah" in double-quotes is someone speaking_

_'blah blah' in single-quotes is mind speech_

_blah blah with no quotes is story text and Ryus thought_

* * *

_Previously..._

_Ryu looks up, determination sparkling in his eyes. "I need to master this telepathy then. I need to return home. I have to help the others. And I have all these new skills I can use. All these new ideas I can implement. I'll have to have Tony show me how to build some things, but once I memorise that, I can help create things that'll stop Galactor, once and for all."_

_They all grin, before Jean's Phoenix reopens the portal back home. Ryu takes one last look around. "I promise you all, that when I come back, we'll stop Galactor for good." He enters the portal, arriving back in his mind. He blinks when he realises the place was a lot more active than when they left. G. Phoenix whistles. "Your mind has recovered. That trip was good for you it seems."_

_Ryu grins. "Yeah. I know. I feel better knowing they're still alive. It means that when I return, I can help kick Galactor's ass!"_

_He gets lightly thwacked on the back of his head by Jean. "Language Ryu."_

_He rubs his head and whines out as G. Phoenix chuckles. "I get enough reprimands by Janet, you too?"_

* * *

After their trip to the Gatchaman dimension, Ryu, Jean and both of their Phoenix's were resting in the control room of the God Phoenix that was Ryu's mind scape. Ryu gives a sigh as well. "It's nice to know they are, relatively alright. So how I use these abilities you gave me?"

Jean's Phoenix sighs whilst G. Phoenix grins. "Well, when you called upon my power against that thing, I didn't expect you to react so well to it. I think it has to do with the way you called it up. You did it in a way that was familiar so it probably was easier to channel. Since it probably counts as experience, your body and mind knew how to channel that power with a bit more ease than if you didn't." Jean and her Phoenix looks confused. G. Phoenix sighs. "Here, I'll show you."

She waves her hand and brings up an image of Ryu's gasping form after G. Phoenix brought him back from his 'death'. As he stumbles to his feet, his voice echoes out, calling upon the Hinotori technique and he lights up. The image fades away a moment later and returns to the teams first mission on-board the Terrapin. They watch as the 5 ninjas form a pyramid and then the look of realisation sparks when Jinpei calls out the Whirlwind Fighter technique. The image fades and the three stare in wonder.

"I'm guessing, that when you call that out, your body and mind unconsciously adapts as if it was under the effects of the Whirlwind fighter technique. So the, Hinotori as you called it, was probably a less of a strain on your mind than if you called my power up on it's own."

They sit in complementation. "So, if I wake up and try it."

"I'll knock you out before you do so! You just recovered! I'm not letting you be reckless unless your life is in danger!" G. Phoenix snaps at him. He holds his hands up in surrender, placating her from her wrath.

"Well, as long as you're telepathy is active like this, your going to have to stick with me."

He frowns, crosses his hands and pouts. "I don't see how this is bad? I mean, it could be a nice tactical advantage telepathic speech y'know."

Jean's Phoenix chirps out a laugh. "Jean, stop focussing his thoughts for a moment. You, may want to block your ears sister." They both look confused for a moment, before a truckload of noise shocks them both.

Ryu cries out, stumbling back and clutching his ears at the over-abundance of noise. As G. Phoenix closes her eyes. A moment later, the noise stops. He shivers on the floor, before looking up at Jean with wide eyes. "That's what I should be hearing!? How do you do deal with that all the time!?"

"Practice and control over your gift. Which is what you'll get from the Xavier's Institute for the Gifted. You may not be a mutant, but you have a power which needs to be cultivated and practised and I know how scared I was when this first happened. But since the Professor is busy in the future, I'm going to be helping you out." She spoke soothingly, as if to reassure him. "Most people think of their powers as a curse. The Professor taught us to consider it a gift." Ryu nods his head, the noise having been suppressed again. "My power, for example, is telepathy and telekinesis. Telepathy let's us read other people's minds and other feats of mental prowess while my Telekinesis let's me manipulate things with my mind."

Ryu gapes in awe. "I'm going to learn how to read minds?"

G. Phoenix interrupts in a teasing tone. "And move things with your mind. It's a minor ability right now, but it's powered up when you use our new technique. Remember how we took down AIM's Mechas?"

Jean arches an eyebrow. "And telekinesis. Wow. We are similar."

G. Phoenix and Jean's Phoenix both grin, and virtually simultaneously utters out. "We chose you, what do you expect." They both blink, look at each other, before bursting into laughter.

Jean's Phoenix then comments. "Still, giving him the same abilities as my host?"

G. Phoenix scoffs. "Actually he already had Telepathy building up. I just, gave it a push to awaken his telekinesis."

Ryu grins, before blinking. "Wait, in that flashback, I was on fire."

G. Phoenix nods. "That's our hinotori ability. When our power manifests, you'll gain a phoenix like shape. Kinda like the God Phoenix's Hinotori form, without the gestalt stuff."

Ryu nods. "So, am I still on fire or what?"

They both open their mouths, pause, then adopt thoughtful expressions. Jean speaks up for them. "I'm not sure. You weren't when I came into here, but I did warn Janet and Logan that we may go fiery since we may be using our Phoenix's. Since we're not bleeding, Logan hasn't tried stabbing us yet. So, maybe we should wake up now?"

"Make sure you rest young man! I will not accept you injuring yourself because you tried to rush into your new powers!" G. Phoenix made sure to speak clearly to her Owl. Ryu nods his head. "There is a difference between rushing it and exercising your abilities. I trust Ms Grey in tutoring you, she has an idea on your limits and I will let you know if your about to go over them." She gives a respectful incline to Jean. "Just... Stay safe. I can help you focus your powers but I think you should do so on your own for most of the time, just so you don't rely on me shutting it off all the time."

Jean gives a nod back. "Well, I'll head on out. See you in a bit." Her Phoenix also waves, before they both fade from his mind.

A few moments later, Ryu turns to G. Pheonix. "So... How do I wake-"

* * *

Logan and Janet both hovered near the two in worry. Both Jean and Ryu were on fire (much to the worry of the hospital staff and the Avenger's) but since nothing else was going up in flames and the area was still, relatively safe, they refrained from doing anything. Still, 5 hours of this and their nerves were starting to fray from all this worry. Janet had swapped places with Hank whilst Logan had swapped with Scott, both were glancing in worry at the two whilst Hank was typing away on a tablet.

Which was understandable when Jean's fire dissipated that both of them jumped back, Claws coming out as Hank fumbles for his own weapon. After nothing happened for a few moments afterwards, they returned to their normal positions, although they were both a lot more relaxed. They jump again when Jean suddenly sits up straight, yawns and stretches her arms out. "Jean?"

"It's alright Logan. Although we're having a new student joining us."

"-up... Wha?" Ryu blinks, the flames that was surrounding him flickering away, before struggling to sit up straight, only for his limbs to fail to hold his weight up properly and cause him to fall back onto the pillow. "Urgh... Head... Water..." He looks around, only to blink when a glass of water and a white pill was offered to him by Hank. Jean was busy downing her own pill and glass, before sighing and starting to explain to Logan what happened.

"So, are you alright Ryu? You gave us all a scare back there." Hank sounded hesitant, but concerned.

Ryu nods his head, sighing in relief as the headache slowly dulled away. "I think so. Although my brain is all weird now. Oh! I"

"Ryu, this is Logan. Otherwise known as Wolverine." Jean interrupted him pretty quickly. _'__Talk about those things later Ryu. Rest now.'_ Well, that was weird. '_Telepathy, I'm talking through our mind. Just, concentrate on me and think something_.'

Ryu frowns. "Um... I..." '_Think... works? Jean?'_

She gives a grin and nods. '_Got it.'_ "Well, We're going to be borrowing Ryu for a while. Hope you don't mind."

About to respond, Hank's ID card suddenly lights up. Bringing it up, it was Steve contacting him. "JARVIS just told me Ryu has woken up. I'm en route there. Give or take a few minutes."

Hank frowns, before shrugging. "You'll have to talk to Steve about that. I'm still not sure if Fury wants us to keep an eye on him or not."

Ryu blinks, frowning and imagines Fury pouting like Jinpei. "You mean the guy with the eye patch?" He was a bit surprised when Logan begins laughing, clutching his stomach and Hank stares at Ryu in wonder and amusement. Ryu looks a bit confused at this.

Jean chuckles. "You just projected that image Ryu. Heh."

He adopts a horrified expression. "Oh god, how do I stop it!" Jean grins. "Already done. I figured it was something you didn't entirely want to share."

Logan, having finally got his laughter under control, wipes a tear form his eye. "I haven't laughed that hard in ages kid. I gotta get that image printed or something."

Cheeks red, Ryu just looked down to his lap. Then he blinks and looks at Jean in worry, his cheeks still red. "Are all my thoughts aren't going to go out like that... are they?"

She blinks in confusion. "Not all of them, unless you really push it? Why? You worried about something?"

Beat red, he shifts in his seat. "... 17 year old guy..." She blinks again, not entirely understanding it. He clarifies it a bit more. "Emphasis on the first and last word." How does one contact their inner spirit? '_You just did. Just call out inwards and I'll answer.'_ Ryu blinks. '_GP, can you.'_ She cuts him off. '_I will prevent those thoughts from going out. Although I expect you to learn how to do that yourself. And GP?' _He gives a shrug. '_It's short for God Phoenix. What can I say.'__  
_

Logan answers for her, a grin building up as he comments in a teasing tone. "I take it your still affected by your hor"

Jean and Ryu both answer quickly. Her "Oh!" and his "Too much!" came at the same time. She continues on. "I'll suppress them, although your going to have to learn to do that yourself soon. I can't keep it up all day."

He shifts a bit more. "GP has offered to do that until I learn. So it's alright."

Logan looks at him in confusion and poor Hank didn't have a clue what was going on. "GP?"

Ryu brightens up, the red slowly fading. "Yeah! That's what I'm going to call my Phoenix. She's the God Phoenix in the fle, um, fire." He gives a chuckle. "But, yeah. I."

Steve chose that moment to walk in. Seeing Ryu sitting up and talking, he gives a soft smile, before pooling it back into one that looked eerily similar to the face Doctor Nambu makes when he's about to reprimand them. He pales when he fishes out a familiar notebook from his pocket. "Glad your awake Ryu. So, when were you going to tell us about your team's actual ages?"

Janet hovers in a few moments later, an apologetic look on her face. "They found your notebook while looking for things to bring here. I tried explaining but."

His stern gaze cuts her off, causing her to go quiet. Logan looks confused but Jean gives an knowing look. "They're young. I know that, but sometimes youth can do things adults normally can't. At least they have a guiding hand to help." She gives a soft look to Ryu, who blinks. Oh yeah, she saw his memories and the team as they were as well. "His world doesn't have heroes like you or Iron man Captain, if anything, his team is what counts as heroes to his world."

Steve blinks and looks at Jean, Logan having guessed what was going on, gives a brief look between the two Phoenix wielders. "... I get the feeling this is involving kids going in over their heads..."

"More like kid heroes Logan. And as the only group preventing Galactor from destroying the world, twice over already, I would call them heroes." Jean was placating, keeping the group calm while trying to explain what she experienced. "I've seen his memories, I've seen his world in person. I can assure you, Jinpei is highly skilled and trained and..."

Ryu suddenly blinks. '_Wait, 2 years have passed back home... That means... Jinpei is about 12... Jun is 18... I'm one of the youngest of the group now...' 'Heh, you're younger than Jun now!'_

"fully capable of defending himself. I know that,"

"I'm only 5 years older than him now... God... damnit." Ryu interrupted her, having just realised exactly what the time fluctuation from his world did for him. The group all looks at him, Jean looking rather confused. "I was the guy in the middle, and now I'm only a few years older than Jinpei... That's gonna be embarrassing when I go back..."

Confused expressions causes Jean to sigh. Again. "When we went fiery, we visited his world. For reasons I'm not going to explain, time was faster there. So the, 2 weeks he's spent here has been 2 years there. It's been fixed now so time is in synch but... well..."

Steve looks even more confused. Logan just shakes his head. "Just say time travel is involved. No need to explain it and blow up brains trying to understand it."

Ryu gives a sigh, before brightening up. "Still, the team is still around. Which means that Galactor hasn't killed them yet." That was rather blunt, causing some exchanged glances. "So the sooner I can get this psionic thing mastered, the sooner I can return and help kick their ass!"

Steve and Janet give a confused glance. Logan decides to explain it in simple terms. "Think of it this way. he just became a mutant who can't control his powers."

They both make an oh sound. Before glancing at their bed-ridden Owl. "I suppose I'll have to let this slide. Tony was actually interested in the blueprints you wrote up in this. He did want me to congratulate you on surprising him. He was quite impressed with the blueprints you did. He did initially think you guessed most of it but changed his mind after realising that there was no hesitance in the lines or maths." He pauses for a moment, thinking on what he was saying next as Janet slowly shuffles her way into the room and stands near his bed. "Also. That new design for that ship of yours. He actually likes. He hopes you'll stay around for a while longer until he actually has it built up."

Ryu's eyes sparkles with glee. "Wait, he's building it!?" Steves confirmation has him grin broadly as Jean tilts her head, then nods in confirmation as well. "That's fu- OW!" He quickly brings his hands to the back of his head, turning to look at Janet with wide eyes.

With a motherly stare, that was 3 parts sterns and 1 part fear for your life, she calmly states. "Cursing. Less. Do it."

Ryu just gives a nervous nods in confirmation. He completely forgot how she was like with his cursing. Jean gives a thoughtful look. "You know Janet... Joe from his universe makes Logan here sound polite. I don't think your going to get him to stop cursing all the time. And I would worry more about Jinpei's cursing streak than Ryu's. He's actually tame in comparison."

Janet gives a look at Logan, who was given Jean an expression that literally was sending out curses with a 'really' word shoved in there somewhere. She still huffs. "Still. Less Cursing."

Steve was busy frowning. "You know... I'm actually tempted to have the Avenger's go with you to your dimension. If only to help end this war quicker." Seeing Ryu about to comment, he quickly adds in. "Not that we don't believe in your skills... But that war has been affecting innocents hasn't it. Having Thor and Tony help out would help end the war quicker. Isn't that what's important?"

Ryu looked conflicted. He didn't need to read minds to know that Steve wanted the war to be over quickly so they could return to being normal. In a way, he appreciated it. But at the same time, he felt a little insulted. Despite the offer of help, he felt like they didn't have any confidence in his abilities or that of his teams. They've been fighting this war for almost a year, technically almost 3 years for the others. Did they really think they needed protection! I mean, sure, they had an actual god on their side. And the Hulk was a living power-house. Tony could probably ruin them in a few minutes. But did they know how to handle the likes of Galactor? Besides, it started with them, it was only fitting it ended with th-

"RYU!"

Jerking back, he blinks at Janet who had her hands on his shoulders. He dimly realised he was being shaken, before shrugging her hands off. "What?"

She points to the side, where he looked to see Jean with her hands to her temples in concentration and the room vibrating slightly. '_Your telekinesis was trying to move everything. Try to calm down. GP did say your powers got stronger with your emotions and whatever your feeling is strong.'_ He blinks again at the mental message, before closing his eyes, placing his hand by his chest, took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled, drawing upon his meditation exercises the team was taught in the beginning of their training. Opening his eyes, Jean was no longer concentrating, just looking at him in concern. The others were too... Awkward...

"... So, when do I start these lessons?" He chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his head as he looks away from the group so as to not let them see his cheeks go beet red. Shaking his head, he feels the blush go down enough to continue like normal. Turning back to the group, he looks from one to the other. "Seriously? What's up? Everyone's looking at me as if I grew a second head or something?" They all avert their gaze, which caused Ryu to pat his neck in concern, then his head. Well, he didn't actually have any heads growing...

Thank god.

"It's not that." Steve tried to placate him. "It's just, I saw some kids get involved in the war before and I don't want to see that happen on my watch ever again. And then I find out you've been involved in a war with a bunch of other kids."

"Teens. We're all virtually teenagers. Ken and Joe are legal adults."

"And the enemy is a more bloodthirsty version of HYDRA who has no qualms about civilians. I want to help and I'm."

"Steve..." That one word got him to stop. Ryu actually looked a bit weary but he now understands why Steve was like this. "We accepted the responsibility and all the crap that comes with it." He blocks Janets strike with his arm, making her blink before remembering he knew how to fight. "Just because we're 'kids', doesn't mean we can just sit around and do nothing. Just like this world has you and Iron Man, my world has Gatchaman and the Science Ninja Team. You may not think we're capable or that we're too young, but we've been doing our best and our entire world is relying on us."

His eyes lit up with fire as his drive flared up. Literally. "We may not be the best. Red Impusle may be gone and our allies may be stretched thin, but we're still fighting. Everyone is fighting against Galactor. Gatchaman hasn't given up and neither will I!"

He shifts on his bed, kneeling on it as the faint flickers of fire flares up around him. "Watashi wa Nakanishi Ryu, Kagaku-Ninjatai Gatchaman, Mimizuku no Ryu! G5!" The faint flickers of red and blue now coats him, blending with the flames as a transparent bird-style fades into view over him. His voice then echoes, as if two was speaking at once. "We were separated and now we're almost back. A gestalt to combat Galactor! And their days are numbered!" He suddenly winces, the flames flickering away as he clutches his head. "Because we're going to return home... and when we do..."

"RYU! Emotions, power. Focus." Jean approached, resting a calming hand on his shoulder. Her tone was soothing. "I don't think he was mocking your skills or belittling your team's." Steve blinks at that, and suddenly slaps his forehead upon realising how Ryu was taking his speech. "He just wants to help out."

Ryu gives a pained look at the older soldier, who actually looked sheepish. "Ah, sorry Ryu. I didn't mean for that to come out as if I wasn't confident in your skills. I just wanted to help take them down quicker."

Ryu gives a hesitant nod as he is eased back into the bed. The others, seeing that the situation was calmer, moved to pick up various floating objects so they won't fall and break. Ryu continue rubbing his temples, trying to soothe the ongoing headache whilst Jean was giving him his first impromptu lesson in controlling your powers.

Logan decides to break the silence. "I'll go let Cyclops know we're having a new student joining us and to prep the blackbird."

Steve gives a nod, still looking admonished. "Yeah. Sorry Ryu. Hope you can learn this power soon. I'm sure Thor and the others would like a word with this Katse. We may not be a part of this Gatchaman's team, but you ARE an Avenger. Even if your in another universe, you're still one of us. "

"It's not Katse any more, just some blue guy called Egobossler." Ryu manages to stammer out. He was taking some deep meditative breaths, focussing his thoughts and concentrating. A moment later, with his mind now calmed down and his thoughts focussed, several papers flutter down as the others put the bed-side table, the jug of water and the several glasses down safely.

"Well, I'm sure you want to start learning how to control your, powers, as soon as possible, so we can probably take you to the mansion." Jean now stood up from her position, looking over the assembled group. "So any other high-emotional comments you would like to make before we set off in the blackbird?"

Janet lightly elbows Jean and hisses out. "Yeah, your going to have your work cut out for you on the way back. Ryu loves planes. He was totally geeking out over the Quinjet once he was rested and got to actually see it properly."

Ryu blinks as Jean groans. "You, no geeking out on the blackbird!"

Ryu blinks again, before putting on a confused expression. "Why would I... unless... That's not fair!" Having realised what the blackbird might actually be, he felt a little cheated. "And I don't geek out! I, just like examining planes!" Yeah, that was a good excuse.

Janet leans over and tattles. "He spent 2 hours with Carol going over the QuinJet's specs."

"Liar! It, was. less?"

"You know, you're right. it was more like 3 hours than 2. With an improptu flying lesson afterwards."

His face was red again, before he suddenly frowns, turns to the window and grumbles. The table did vibrate lightly but nothing was floating.

"Well... take care of him Jean." Janet gives a look to the red head, who nods her head. Jan then hops over and gives him a sudden hug. "And be good Ryu! Cut down on the swearing and try to get a handle on your powers. Kay?"

A little red from the sudden hug, he awkwardly pats her on the back before she let's go. Steve walks up next and holds out a hand. He firmly takes Captain America's hand, is shook once before he was pulled into a brief hug and a firm pat on the back. "Can you let the others know too..." Ryu managed to utter quietly, as if he was embarrassed.

Steve gives a brief laugh. "No need to feel embarrassed we're all just glad you're alright. Once you get your new powers under control, I'd like to have a spar. See how well you incorporate it into your fighting style. Tony may have finished creating that ship for you as well."

Hank, who was quiet for a while, gives him a respectful nod. "We'll see you later."

Waving farewell, he watches the Avenger's file out, before turning to Jean. She also starts to leave, pauses at the door and smiles. "Your clothes in in the bag. Get yourself changed and we'll head off."

About to comment, a white bag floats up and places itself on the bed next to him. Seeing his question answered, he gives a nod to Jean as she closes the door. '_Well GP, looks like the next step to getting home is to master this power.'_

_'That's going to be fun.'_

He slips out from under the covers and starts getting himself dressed. The last piece he puts on, is his bracelet. He gives it a longing look, before looking back at the door. '_Well GP. Looks like this is the next chapter of our story. Do you think this is going to be more calmer than my time with the Avengers?'_

As he leaves the room, he can't help but wonder why she was laughing hysterically.

* * *

_**Several minutes later.**_

Ryu steps outside of the room and spots Jean sitting on a chair nearby. Giving a nod, she get's up and starts walking down the hall, with him following. She takes him to the staircase and starts heading up. After a going up a few dozen levels, she opens the door, panting a bit. Ryu stumbles out a moment afterwards, also breathing heavily, but stops upon spotting the black plane infront of him. '_No geeking out. Remember.'_ Still feeling cheated, he gives a nod and a pout as he is lead to the loading ramp. As he get's on, he ogles the machinery inside, looking everywhere and catching everything.

Jean eventually pushes him down onto a chair and tells him to strap himself in. As he does so, Logan flips some switches and the engines flare up. As the jet lifts up, he gives a brief comparison to the Phoenix, before the entire thing accelerates forwards. He gives a broad grin as Logan takes them up into the sky, before flipping a switch and then getting up. Quirking an eyebrow, he meets Ryu's questioning gaze and mutters "auto pilot. I'll be in the back."

Ryu's face lights up, again as Logan makes his way back. Jean turns and calls out. "There better not be any beer or cigars back there!" Logan freezes, before continuing onwards. Jean mutters a bit to herself, about irresponsible people or something along those lines as Scott tries to calm her down. Seeing that everyone was distracted, he tries to subtly move closer to the front.

_'Wall!'_ Wha? He thumps on the air, stumbling back with a yelp and clutching his nose which felt like he just walked into a wall. '_Told you.'_

"Ryu, please don't mess around with the Blackbird's controls."

Cyclops looks alarmed but Ryu, still rubbing his nose, whines out. "But Jean!"

"No buts. Back in your seat!"

Grumbling, he does as she demands, before crossing his arms and legs and then going into a pout. "This is going to be a long flight..."

"Hey! Feet off the seat!" Cyclops was now having a go at him. And over something so minor!?

"What!? Your kidding me!"

"I'm not joking! Kids..." Ok, that caused his eye to twitch slightly. He could of understood the feet and seat thing but that last word!? He thinks he's a kid!? Oh, he's seen nothing yet! He was going to regret this now! And the look on Jean's face when she spots him smirking almost evilly, she realised this was going to be a long 10 minute flight.

* * *

_**What seems like hours but was really about 10 minutes**_

"Told you it's a long trip!"

"That's because you kept going 'Are we there yet' every freaking second!" Cyclops was waving his arm around in a huff whilst Logan was still torn between laughing and trying to stab him. Jean was just nursing her head. "You haven't given us a minute to just"

"Look! A cliff!" Ryu, some large number, Scott 0! It probably wasn't fair. I mean, with Jinpei and Joe on the same team, he had an unfair advantage in being patient as well as some pretty good skills in how to annoy other people. So the moment Cyclops told him off for putting his feet up after denying him a chance to sit at the front AND called him a kid, and well, he was on his 'hit list'. So with practised ease, he started annoying the hell out of the x-man, asking why for several minutes, shifting the focus to something random and then back and forth between that and other things in complete randomness until his head was getting too confused to think straight.

Cyclops turns to the screen, watching the familiar cliffs come into view. Arms in the air with a loud exclamation of finally, he moves to the piloting seat and begins preparations for landing.

Jean gives Ryu a look, which he tries to look innocent. "What? It's not my fault he's such a stiff guy. Needs to lighten up or things will just cascade out of control. He's a bit too much like Ken and Nambu in that respect. Still, probably makes for a good leader right?" His tone flickers between a smirk and an approving grin.

Cyclops just rolls his eyes from under his visor. "Seriously. Your acting like a little kid. You're almost a grown man, act like one!"

Ryu just sticks his tongue out. "Well you DID call me a Kid earlier, so I showed you what a 'kid' could do." He then crosses his arms and grins triumphantly, before the seat tilts slightly.

Looking up, he stares right back at Logan. "Y'know kid, I'm not sure whenever to high-five you or give you a nice, relaxing session in the Danger Room." Ryu just blinks back. Was, Logan, growling? About to comment, the Jet's deceleration has him completely distracted.

He glances at the wall, before closing his eyes. He then places a hand against the wall, feeling each tremble and groan as the jet lands. It was a text-book landing, and with what he remembered from the way the plane looked like before boarding, he notices few minor details that was wrong, which caused him to frown. Once the engine died away, he comments. "If you pitch the plane back a bit more, you'll put less stress on the rear-left wheel..." Scott stares at him while Logan blinks in confusion. Jean smiles softly as Ryu continues on. "The stabilisers on the right side is also a little off. It's a tiny amount, barely half a percent, but it'll also puts less stress by that same amount on the other stabiliser..." Opening his eyes, he glances at the occupants, then flushes red. "What? Is something on my face?"

He quickly rubs his face as Logan shakes his head, but it was Jean who answered their unasked question. "He used to pilot a warship, completely manually in his world and engaged large mechas in combat. So his plane base knowledge is pretty good." Scott turns his gaze to the red-head, a questioning expression on his face. "I'll, try to explain it all later. Once we gather the rest of the X-men together. C'mon Ryu, I'll show you to your room."

Ryu was glancing back and forth in confusion, before shrugging. As the ramp descents, he takes one last look around, before Jean sighs. "I'll show you the jet later. Let's just get you settled in for now."

Ryu gives a grin before nodding his head in approval. As long as he comes back to see that jet! It looked highly impressive. Still not as nice as the God Phoenix, but a pretty distinct third place, after the Original God Phoenix and his new designs for the God Phoenix that Tony said he was going to build.

_'Damn straight! Nothing compares to my old shell! Although the one you designed looks nice as well!'_

* * *

_**A/N: **And that's the end of the chapter and this story. Look out for the next story in the Marvel / Gatchaman Crossover Section, known as "**The Owl and the Phoenix**" (sounds very close to the series name as a whole, which is 'The lost Owl and the Phoenix'). It'll be split into multiple parts as Ryu struggles to control his new abilities as well as getting a close p introduction to the mutant population. An explanation why is as follows:_

_He isn't technically a Mutant, it's not an X-gene that's given him his powers thus, without Jean and GP helping out, his powers are stuck in the on state until his mind (which is fairly disciplined already from being a Science Ninja) can start suppressing the effects until needed. _

_His emotions can cause his powers to flare out strongly, which, if not prepared can quickly overwhelm the suppressing effects Jean and GP have erected. That's why when his emotions flare up, his powers are shown. They're overwhelming their suppressing effects. Embarrassment, joy, fear. All of these emotions amplify his power._

_Ryu can tap into GP's power, which can give him a huge boost of power as a conscious or subconscious attempt. This is a subconscious effort that his emotions latch onto her power as she tries to calm him down mentally. He can consciously mimic this effect by using the 'new' technique he now has, the 'Kaguku ninpo! Hinotori!' This works because his mind and body prepares itself for focussed power like the Tornado Fighter technique. It just so happens he explodes into fire and can bend reality instead of creating a tornado._

_Speaking__ of GP, her bond with Ryu has gotten stronger, allowing them to communicate freely between one another and even capable of bringing in other people into the conversation. And like the Phoenix in the Old X-men Cartoon, she is rolling in on the new emotions human-kind has. This may become it's own saga in the future (or not), but it doesn't change the fact that it has potential. But either way, the world will be getting to know GP soon enough._

_So yes. That's 4 reasons for the next story to take place. So in a nutshell, Ryu needs to go back to school to do some learning :p_

_Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammar mistakes. expect the next fic to crop up in a few weeks while i shuffle ahead with the drafts._


	15. New Story and Preview!

NEW Story is up! Check it out in the (Anime) Gatchaman - (Comics) Marvel crossover section!

Here's a preview!

* * *

"I know GP is friendly but that friendly?" She suddenly gives a weirded out expression. "And now my Phoenix is trying to copy that." They head up in the lift, both communicating with their Phoenix's, one chatting aimlessly about what improvements the God Phoenix could try while the other trying to get used to a more 'friendly' Phoenix Force.

It was when the door opens to a wall of blue fur that has them both snap out of it. "Oh, my apologies Jean. I was just, who's this?" The blue furry guy just spots Ryu and gives an inquiring expression.

"Ah, this is Ryu. He's going to be a new student Hank. Ryu, this is Doctor Hank McCoy, codenamed Beast."

Ryu looks up at Hank. He's seen orange rock people, green giants, scaled monsters and now a blue, fuzzy guy? Well, at least this world was keeping him on his toes. "Erm... Hi?"

"I'm going to be teaching him on how to control his powers." Jean started explaining.

"Really? Similar powers I assume?" Hank adopts a thoughtful expression as he steps in and the door closes. The three shuffle around a bit to get comfortable, with Hank standing between the two Phoenix Force wielders.

"Really similar. Ryu is also known as the Horned Owl. I'm sure you can guess why he's here?" Jean gives a grin.

Hank suddenly widens his eyes and looks down at him, remembering the events that was broadcast on national Television, who was slowly getting more and more flush for unknown reasons. At least, to them.

To him, he had a good reason to be so embarrassed.

_'So soft.._.' That was when he started to go red. '_GP!'_ A Mental shout, feeling a little embarrassed '_What? He is! Don't deny it!' _He was getting even more red in the face. '_Can... Can you feel things I feel?'_ Was his response, avoiding the question. '_Yup! And I say he feels soft! He takes good care of his fur! I can tell you that much_! _Give him a hug! I wanna see if he is that soft!'_

Hank's exclamation breaks his mental connection. "You mean you're the other wielder of the Phoenix Force!?" He looks quite alarmed at that. No doubt wondering how safe it was being in a small cramped, metal box with two people with powerful psionic power's at their disposal. '_Come on! Hug him!' _If only he knew what GP was like.

* * *

Enjoy the rest! Owl Assemble is now formally, COMPLETE!


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